Server Dist. Recommendations

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thekiwi

295 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 7

#18942 30-Jan-2008 15:45

Hi all

About to start planning a replacement for a couple of my Linux Servers, and wondering what of the current Dist's are worth investigating. To date Ive used solely Redhat and of late Fedora Core.

They primarily run:

* BIND

* SENDMAIL

* APACHE

* MySQL

plus the normal collection if POP, FTP etc.

Typically run RAID5.

Not interested in any fancy desktops but updating methods (eg yum) are pretty important. Just be interested in hearing pro's/con's of what people have found with more server based installs.

Cheers

Craig

thekiwi

295 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 7

#107560 30-Jan-2008 16:01

PS

Found quite a cool tool to help in any Linux Disto choice:
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

Came back wit the most recommended as:
Ubuntu
Debian
OpenSuSE
Fedora

altho' Gentoo was also listed

chakkaradeep

799 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#107561 30-Jan-2008 16:02

If you want something for free, then Debian is THE CHOICE

But if you want support too, then RHEL is THE CHOICE

My peresonal preference would be RHEL

Regards,
Chaks

Desktop : Intel Quad Core Q9400 2.66GHz - 8GB RAM - 500 GB + 500 GB HDD - NVidia GeForce 9800GT - LG246WH Flatron Display - Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with Hyper-V
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thekiwi

295 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 7

#107565 30-Jan-2008 16:06

chakkaradeep: If you want something for free, then Debian is THE CHOICE

But if you want support too, then RHEL is THE CHOICE

My peresonal preference would be RHEL

Sorry .. should have put a caveat on that :)

It has to be free ;)

chakkaradeep

799 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#107570 30-Jan-2008 16:15

thekiwi:
Sorry .. should have put a caveat on that :)

Ok, so the thing to consider next is, how you want it to be?

1) Bleeding Edge Server distro with updates frequently released, or
2) Stable distro with a strict release cycle?

If 1 - Ubuntu
If 2 - Debian

thekiwi

295 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 7

#107576 30-Jan-2008 16:25

chakkaradeep:
thekiwi:
Sorry .. should have put a caveat on that :)

Ok, so the thing to consider next is, how you want it to be?

1) Bleeding Edge Server distro with updates frequently released, or
2) Stable distro with a strict release cycle?

If 1 - Ubuntu
If 2 - Debian

Cheers thanks for that.
Have to be a stable distro.

On that, what lead you to Debian over Fedora ?

chakkaradeep

799 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#107583 30-Jan-2008 16:53

thekiwi:
On that, what lead you to Debian over Fedora ?

Fedora is a test bed for RHEL versions. I dont want a test bed to be my server

I almost forgot about CentOS, some of my friends recommend that too

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

foobar

186 posts

Master Geek

#107672 31-Jan-2008 05:59

If you are already used to RHEL and the way it works and is set up
then CentOS is a good, free (as in: no cost) choice, which also will
limit the extend of the learning curve you'll have to climb.

Since I started to use Ubuntu on my desktop at some point, I have
also begun to use Ubuntu as a server distro (Ubuntu comes in a
special 'server' variety). The nice thing about this is that you can
try and test a couple of small things on your desktop and then trans-
fer them painlessly over to the server, if this is the kind of development
model you'd pursue.

You mentioned the importance of updating methods. I think you want
the ability to have stuff updated automatically, rather than having to
manually download TAR balls and compile things and such? Yum is
probably pretty good (not much experience with it). On Debian based
systems (such as Ubuntu and others) you have apt-get (and similar
tools), which have a very good reputation.

As far as paid, professional support is concerned: You can get that
for both, RedHat and Oracle for RedHat OSs and Canonical for Ubuntu.

If you are more into the free kind of support: Well, Ubuntu has a pretty
good user community that is quite helpful. Also, since it is Debian
based, most of the Debian related forums, tips&tricks and How-Tos
should also be of help. And there are a lot of those.

I never worked much with RedHat, so I cannot comment on the
quality or availability of free support resources there. Considering
how long they have been around, though, I'm thinking that it should
not be a problem to find.

One more comment about Ubuntu: It's not just 'bleeding edge'
stuff. For example, I run Ubuntu 6.06 LTS as a server. LTS stands
for 'Long Term Support'. This means no major upgrades or such, only
bug fixes. It will be supported like that for a couple of years by Canonical.
That keeps the base system un-fancy, nice and stable, just the way
server admins like it...

The blog: foobar on computers, software and the rest of the world: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/foobar