Server OS needed

[Entity_Razer]

Hey guys, got some question. I know we got a few hard core linux users here (yes amongst many you mOp) and some BSD'rs, and a lot of window users (duh)


Now I'm looking into building me a server to host websites on. Now this server is going to be my first "real" server as this will be NOT a "trail and error" server. So this things needs to be powers on, and keep running for LONG times without reboots, downtimes..... This thing needs to be stable as a rock.

Config:

AMD 2500 (shamefully not a mobile)
A7N8X-X
512MB DDR RAM (to begin with, if needed I'll upp to 1GB)
40GB HDD
some cheap BenQ CD ROM
Case to be determined, hopefully a 1U case.
GPU: Ati Rage 8MB

Now first off I know Gentoo is a good linux distro, but a bit to hard core for me. Ubuntu is to low level I reckon to do any decent work on it. so I looked at the BSD's. NetBSD seems to be designed for server usage but I have NO experience with BSD what so ever. Is it easy to install? easy to run and maintain? How about remoting..... such things.

I have my doubts with windows seeing as, although windows 2003 is a very nice product, I don't need all that stuff on it, i only need a FTP, Apache, PHP, DNS and thats about it I reckon.

I want this server to be as fast as possible so i was thinking of installing and setting it all up and then let the linux or BSD distro run in text based more to use as little cpu usage as possible.

So as you can see I'm almost certainly going for a linux or BSD distro, I just don't know which is good....

I need good security, ease of use, ease of maintenance and a very stable system that won't need rebooting for several months.


Can anyone one you help me out? :)

[fhpchris]

2003 server FTW!

[VisiV]

I second that. Great OS for serving and for a workstation as well.

[wildc4rd]

Server 2003 is good if you don't want to lose Windows, otherwise Fedora core something (4 or 5 I would suggest) or Gentoo and just get used to it.

[[XC] moddolicous]

I tihnk Gentoo would definetly be the best choice, and there installation guides & forums make it pretty easy. BSD's are also very good, although I couldnt get that installed for some reason. Maybe Solaris?

[illmatik]

Solaris is great on sun hardware, that I can attest. Don't know of many production sol x86 machines yet. We got some sun opterons in to demo in grid cluster mode to test the new container technology out, I'll report back on that one ;)

For hassle-proof administration, I would choose a distribution compatible with Webmin (www.webmin.com). There are tons of distros supported now, so that doesn't make a choice any easier ;) but it's a great tool all the way around. Solaris 10 actually uses webmin for its admin package now.

You can't go wrong w/ redhat/fedora or SuSE along w/ something like PLESK Server Administrator (which will help you create/register subdomains, allocate/monitor bandwidth of each user, reporting, billing, etc). If you're serious about hosting that wouldn't be a bad way to go. I think people have developed hosting plugins for webmin that do the administrative paperwork type stuff that commercial systems like plesk and cpanel offer.

Another lean, mean, and easy to secure platform is debian. Small footprint, nice package management system (apt), and webmin compatibility as well.
I've run some serious portfolio trading systems on debian, and it's never failed on us (the app has, but the os/web component didn't).

Every distro has something unique to offer, but coming from the environments I've worked in (investment banks & related technology), the only approved production linux environments were redhat and SuSE. The debian system was a vendor supplied & supported product.

I know others will disagree and I haven't made a hard case for any one specific platform (we can argue for years on a distro) and focused more on the system/business management aspect, that's just my $0.02. Just about every platform can do what you need, it's going to come down to the one that will do it the easiest & safest.

[Megadeth]

I recommend Gentoo. I love Gentoo and it is the easiest distro to maintain. The install is long, but if you can read and type, then you'll be fine and you'll learn alot about Linux and Unix at the same time. Basically, those distros that hold your hand like Fedora Core or Ubuntu are useless because when you have to do some config editing you're lost. I say get Gentoo and "emerge" only those programs that you need. Since you only need server stuff emerge that. If you go with Fedora Core you will have a very robust environment that will have useless stuff and alot of processes running that won't even pertain to what you're doing. Gentoo is basically build from scratch so you can customize it for your uses.

[Entity_Razer]

ok, so I'm doubting between going gentoo for the linux side, 2003 (although this needs to be legit so doubting seeing as i'd actually have to buy 2003 which can become costly) and NetBSD

can some of you post what I'd need (what I need to put in emerge) to get this server set up on Gentoo?

[mrapples]

i say free or open bsd, you cannot beat them for a web server

and forgive me for being rude, but to suggest a microsoft os as a long lasting and stable server os, is absolutely ridiculous

[illmatik]

you should look into some of the bare hosting configs for various distros. I havent had much time to play w/ gentoo (it will be my next linux desktop though I liked what I saw)

I've done the same with debian as megadeth suggested with gentoo. We would install the core OS, then apt-get apache, apt-get php, apt-get mysql, apt-get ftpd, and it would walk you through the config for each package. Once that was done, apt-get upgrade would patch everything (if needed) to the safest versions. If you're really paranoid (I think emerge does this by default in the new builds) you can use a secure apt which signs the software you install as authentic against the package authority.

As with any rpm based system, debian also has the bastille package which will test your system for vulnerabilities and suggest alternate configurations to improve security.

You can use just about any distro you like as long as you choose to install the base system, and then install the services you need on top of the core system.

The other thing that will help you in any *nix/nux environment that I couldn't stress enough is to chroot your internet facing services. chroot basically contains each service into its own user space/environment so that if someone did compromise your system, there would be almost nowhere to go to seek further access or damage. google 'chroot-bind howto' for a great example of this method. chroot can get tricky with linked services like apache-php & mysql that have separate chroot sandboxes, but there are hundreds of howtos out there on how to safely configure their interaction.

if you'd like to see an example of an amazing hardened redhat based environment, download an eval or home use version of the astaro security linux firewall. It's a very well designed system, and a peek into the config and startup process can be a wealth of infomation.

smoothwall is another good example of a secured linux firewall system based on debian I believe which would be a good example how a hardened apt based distro works.

I havent seen a firewall product based on gentoo yet, but I'm sure theres one out there.

[illmatik]

Oh, here's a great list of howtos that might help you narrow down your decision.

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html

[mrapples]

i love linux and all, and run gentoo religiously, but for real solid, long term web server applications, i say bsd

that said, you wouldnt be making a mistake with linux

[Serra]

Well, although I would probably promote windows server 2003 for a first server build (due to ease of use)... it is kind of cost prohibitive for simple home-based web hosting.

If you want something easy to start with, go with Red Hat. Yes, it's not as hard core linux as some other distro's... but it is VERY user friendly. And free.

My 2 cents.

[darkhelmet]

ubuntu may be simple for the simple user, but it's still based on debian so you can still crunch out the more technical things you'd want to do.

[nn_step]

FreeBSD or OpenBSD if you are paranoid

[mrapples]

FreeBSD or OpenBSD if you are paranoid
these are the best for the situation not just security wise, but stability wise as well