Server OS - Hardware & Software

I'm looking to virtualize several servers: MySQL, Web, and maybe e-mail. What would be the best distro for them? This is for a small business environment, and I'm not very good with different distros.

Fedora - using it on my server and it's absolutely rock solid while keeping everything up to date. Otherwise CentOS if, unlike me, you don't want a challenge getting it the way you want.

CentOS. It's exactly the same as Red Hat Enterprise Linux but you don't get enterprise support. [url]http://www.centos.org[/url] I wouldn't use Fedora as DarkImmortal suggested, it's way too unstable. It's a testing ground for Red Hat's enterprise products, so it's sort of similar to RHEL and CentOS.

Debian

Debian, use squeeze if you need the newest version of everything.

I give one more vote for Debian.

Arch Linux, I love it!

[QUOTE=TVC;22552201]Arch Linux, I love it![/QUOTE] Rolling release for a server? Think about it for a minute.

[QUOTE=ButtsexV2;22558007]Rolling release for a server? Think about it for a minute.[/QUOTE] Exactly what I thought :v:

I use Debian and it's great. What makes CentOS better than Debian? And does it use apt-get? [QUOTE=ButtsexV2;22545770]Debian, use squeeze if you need the newest version of everything.[/QUOTE] What's squeeze and why does it want to install all this crap. [IMG]http://imgkk.com/i/6ydn.png[/IMG] Wait isn't it an archiver? Just use apt-get upgrade if you need a newer version of anything.

Not that squeeze. Squeeze is the codename of the current "testing" branch of Debian. (The current stable release is "Lenny".) Since Debian's release cycle is long (typically 18-24 months between releases), some people advocate using the testing branch in order to get newer software, even though it's not actually officially released yet. For a desktop or a nonessential server it isn't a bad idea, but I wouldn't recommend it for important servers, because it breaks sometimes. (Its whole purpose is to be the place to find and fix bugs.) If you do choose to run testing, remember that packages get updated on a daily basis, some with important fixes, so you should update regularly.

O I see. Well everything on my server works right now so I don't see a point in changing or updating anything. Except for the occasional upgrade for security.

And no, CentOS does not use apt-get. It's RedHat -- literally, CentOS is RHEL with the RedHat trademarked name and logos removed -- so its package system is RPM, not dpkg. The RPM analoge to apt-get is called Yum.

[QUOTE=Wyzard;22568676]If you do choose to run testing, remember that packages get updated on a daily basis, some with important fixes, so you should update regularly.[/QUOTE] you're thinking sid, squeeze repos are mostly stagnant now other than web browsers and security updates

Maybe "daily" was the wrong word, but testing does get new packages regularly, and not just security fixes. Other than during the freeze period before a release, packages propagate automatically from unstable to testing, subject to a few rules to avoid getting broken stuff. (Incubation period of roughly a week in unstable to allow bugs to be found, new version can't have more RC bugs than the version currently in testing, plus a few other things.) Actually, testing is [i]last[/i] to get security updates, because it only gets them when they propagate from unstable based on those rules. Stable gets them first because the security team puts them there directly, and unstable typically gets them soon after, as part of normal updates by the package maintainer.

Debian all the way.

Go with Debian.

Debian.

Gentoo [sp]I kid, I kid, use debian[/sp]

According to Wikipedia, Debian doesn't actually use a rolling release, it actually releases in seperate branches. Is that wrong?

No, he was refering to Arch.

Oh, I misread something somewhere. I saw "Rolling release for a server? Are you stupid?" as "Always use a rolling release for a server."

As I've stated before, I plan on virtualizing these. Some unreasonable security rules if you are to charge credit cards say that each server can only have one function. It makes some sense as a email server attack shouldn't get into a credit card DB, but it's somewhat unreasonable for a small business. So far, I like CentOS, but I will be looking into Debian shortly. [editline]10:40AM[/editline] Would you guys recommend running web services like Apache and an email server on the same server? I know that a SQL database shouldn't be able to be accessed externally, but I really disagree with the one primary role per server.

CentOS

Debian or CentOS

[QUOTE=Agent766;22603126]As I've stated before, I plan on virtualizing these. Some unreasonable security rules if you are to charge credit cards say that each server can only have one function. It makes some sense as a email server attack shouldn't get into a credit card DB, but it's somewhat unreasonable for a small business. So far, I like CentOS, but I will be looking into Debian shortly. [editline]10:40AM[/editline] Would you guys recommend running web services like Apache and an email server on the same server? I know that a SQL database shouldn't be able to be accessed externally, but I really disagree with the one primary role per server.[/QUOTE] I run apache and my IRC server on the same machine, but that never handles any credit information. And if you have all the credit information encrypted it should be pretty much safe. Twofish is a pretty good cipher, if you go the encryption route.

[QUOTE=ButtsexV2;22558007]Rolling release for a server? Think about it for a minute.[/QUOTE] I've used it many a time for a server, it works fine, Arch Linux is considered a general Linux, for either desktop or server use.

[QUOTE=TVC;22654133]I've used it many a time for a server, it works fine, Arch Linux is considered a general Linux, for either desktop or server use.[/QUOTE] no it isn't. You shouldn't use an unstable distribution for a server.

[QUOTE=ButtsexV2;22654683]no it isn't. You shouldn't use an unstable distribution for a server.[/QUOTE] How the hell is it unstable?

not talking unstable as in crashes often, when I say unstable I mean in the debian sense. [editline]08:28AM[/editline] though it is unstable compared to centos, debian, etc.