How to Install Ubuntu Pro on Your Servers
Ubuntu Server has been my go-to server operating system for years. I find it to be the best combination of user-friendly, stable and secure.
That user-friendly bit is especially important to anyone who’s just now venturing into the realm of Linux on a server. Why? Because if you go with a distribution like Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux or AlmaLinux, you also have to contend with SELinux, which can be a serious challenge for someone who is just beginning with Linux.
But that’s not the only reason why I recommend Ubuntu Server. In fact, there are several reasons, such as the apt package manager (and all of the repositories that come with it) and Ubuntu Pro.
Hold up. What’s this thing called Ubuntu Pro?
Ubuntu Pro is a service that was first released as a beta service on October 5, 2022, and was then made available to the general public on January 26, 2023. In tech years, it’s a teenager, so it’s had plenty of time to bake and become not only stable but depended upon by many companies around the globe.
The gist of Ubuntu Pro is that it gives your operating system and some 23,000 available applications security updates for 10 years. Imagine being able to deploy a server and know that it will be supported for a decade and will remain in compliance for the same period. For mission-critical needs, that’s a game-changer.
There is a free tier available for Ubuntu Pro for both personal and small-scale personal usage, both of which can be used on up to five machines. Beyond that, the pricing looks like this:
| Self-Support | With Infra Support | With Full Support | |
| Desktop (workstation/year) | $25 | – | $300 |
| Server with unlimited VMs (machine/year) | $500 | $1,775 | $3,400 |
You can check out the Ubuntu Pro price/feature matrix to view the full list of features.
So, how do you install Ubuntu Pro? I’m going to demonstrate on a personal server (Ubuntu 22.04). One thing to keep in mind is that Ubuntu Pro can only be installed on Long-Term Support (LTS) versions of Ubuntu (both desktop and server editions).
What You’ll Need
Before you get started, the first thing you must do is sign up for a Ubuntu Pro account. This is free (and where you access the necessary tokens for your account). Go to the Ubuntu Pro site and sign up for your account.
You’ll also need a running instance of a Ubuntu LTS release and a user with sudo preferences. Of course, the Ubuntu machine must also be connected to the internet. Other than that, you should be good to go.
Update/upgrade
Before you install the necessary software, let’s make sure to update and upgrade your server. Keep in mind that if the kernel is upgraded during this process, you’ll have to reboot the machine so that the changes will take effect. Because of this, make sure to run the update/upgrade process during a time when a reboot is possible.
To update and upgrade Ubuntu, log in and access a terminal window. Once at your bash prompt, issue the following command:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
Install the Required Software
The next step is to install the necessary software, which is done with the following command:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-advantage-tools -y
The installation should go off without issue, and you won’t need to restart the server.
Attach Your Server
Now you can attach the server to your Ubuntu Pro account. Before you do this, you must log in to your account and then visit your Ubuntu Pro Dashboard. On your Dashboard, you should see a listing for your token, which will be a string of characters. Copy that token to your machine’s clipboard.
Back at the machine, you’ll need to run the following command:
sudo pro attach TOKEN
Where TOKEN is your Ubuntu Pro token.
After this is completed, you’ll need to enable the Extended Security Maintenance feature (to gain 10 years of updates) with the command:
sudo pro enable esm-apps
The other options you can enable are:
- anbox-cloud
- cc-eal
- esm-infra
- fips
- fips-preview
- fips-updates
- landscape
- livepatch
- realtime-kernel
- ros
- ros-updates
- usg
What you can enable will depend on your subscription, but the pro enable command will check that for you.
Check for Updates
After you’ve taken care of that, you can then check for available updates with the command:
sudo pro security-status
The above command will respond with output like this:
685 packages installed:
660 packages from Ubuntu Main/Restricted repository
10 packages from Ubuntu Universe/Multiverse repository
15 packages from third parties
You can even check on the packages that are associated with a specific feature, such as ESM, like so:
sudo pro security-status --esm-apps
Now when you run the update/upgrade process, it will pick up all the packages included in Extended Security Maintenance.
And there you have it, my friends. You’ve extended the support of your Ubuntu servers and/or desktops, thanks to Ubuntu Pro. I recommend testing this out with the free tier, and then, if you find it worthy of your enterprise IT infrastructure, upgrading your license to include those mission-critical servers so you can enjoy a decade of support.
