Spare pc to use with ubuntu server

[Leprechaun312]

Hello currently i have a spare pc, i have just ordered a new build and i am expecting it this week. the spare pc is as follows
Amd athlon II x3 440 3ghz (can be a x4 phenom b50 if i unlock the 4th core)
6gb of g.skill ram
asus m4a88t-m mobo
ati 5770 will probably take that out with the ideas that i have)
320gb hdds x2
ethernet ports x2

what i would like to do is use the spare pc as a server, to play about with and get used to. I have used windows server and ubuntu before but have started and not really known where to go. What i would like to do is to either install windows 2008 server (have a spare copy) and then have 2 virtual ubuntu servers or any other linux server distro.

My question is what program would i use to do this and secondly once i have windows server running and 2 virtual linux servers running what would i do with them, I'd like to do a job in ict after i finish school and have been to uni so i would like to learn how to use windows server and ubuntu server. but what should i do inside the ubuntu servers dns stuff (maybe not) a file server, proxy server, web server??

any thoughts???

thanks

 

[Leprechaun312]

If you have a Server 2008 licence, I think that you can use Hyper-V at no additional cost, so this could cover your virtualisation needs (assuming the Linux guest OS you want to use is supported). Alternatively, you could try Oracle VirtualBox or VMware Player as additional installs, which would also work.

In terms of Linux stuff, you'll want to make sure you have a good grasp of the command line, monitoring tools, where to find logs for troubleshooting etc. Things to learn about setting up could include the LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) stack, file sharing using Samba or NFS, CUPS printer sharing, disk quota management, possibly mail server stuff (including spam filtering)... It really depends on how in-depth you want to get and what area of IT you're aiming for. I would suggest not just limiting yourself to Ubuntu server, though. Learning on something Red Hat-based (CentOS, for example) using RPM would be beneficial as well, as a lot of companies out there use CentOS and RHEL on their servers. Having knowledge of two different package management systems is a good idea, in my opinion.

Out of interest, what are you doing at uni?

thanks that is a great start, i'm not in uni yet i have finished my GCSE's and well from what i've seen through GCSE ICT powerpoint, microsoft word and microsoft access just aren't going to be at all useful in the I.T industry, and thats the reason why i am learning now so when i go to uni i will have a better understanding than that of someone who has just done GCSE and A level ICT

 

[Leprechaun312]

i should probably change the once i finish uni bit