Skip to content

# Installing Debian

Tip

This page is only relevant if you will install Debian yourself. If your data center has provided you with a ready Debian Trixie server, just skip this page.

You have a blank computer or virtual machine? Then simply install Debian Trixie yourself. Get a boot medium from the Debian website. The smaller network installer is sufficient – it will download all required packages directly from the internet. Make sure you choose ‘English’ as the installation language even if it is not your native language. If you have trouble with the server you will more likely find help when searching for English error messages on the internet.

Most of the installation is pretty straightforward. You don’t need me holding your hand. However I strongly recommend that you use the logical volume manager (LVM) for your partitions to stay flexible if your server grows. See my article on LVM if you want some help understanding its concept.

## Partitioning

Section titled “Partitioning”

These are the relevant paths and the minimum amount of space I would suggest. If you use LVM, enlarging partitions later is very simple.

- Directory
  / (operating system – 5 GB)
  - Directory
    var/
    - Directory
      vmail/ (actual emails will be stored here – 10 GB)
      - …
    - Directory
      log/
      - Directory
        journal/ (systemd saves logs here – 5 GB)
        - …
  - Directory
    tmp/ (temporary storage – 1 GB)
    - …