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MallyMal · Jan 22, 2009, 09:15 AM

Hey folks, need a little help here. Soon I will be buying an HP or Dell rack server as a web server, I wanted to get some suggestions on the best, most cost effective Linux distro to get for the OS. I have zero experience working with Linux but I have years of experience working with OS X Server's Unix side on my current Xserve.

I would like something I can download and test out and get used to. I would also need all the standard components for web serving such as Apache, MySQL, PHP, FTP, Mail etc. Is there distro that has some of this stuff of will I have to install it all?

Thanks

besson3c · Jan 22, 2009, 09:20 AM

FreeBSD is great, although not as easy to setup and get going as, say, Ubuntu or CentOS. Are you looking for something super easy, or the best possible server?

I would definitely plan on virtualizing your web server. In fact, I pretty much recommend every new server be virtualized these days where it makes sense. It makes building your next one so much easier, it makes providing a test environment for you also easy. Snapshots and virtual disks also come in handy as well. If you want to do this, Linux is going to be a better option than FreeBSD for your VM host.

MallyMal · Jan 22, 2009, 09:31 AM

Originally Posted by besson3c

FreeBSD is great, although not as easy to setup and get going as, say, Ubuntu or CentOS. Are you looking for something super easy, or the best possible server?

Well, tell me both the super easy and the best possible so that maybe I can download them and test which works best for me.

Originally Posted by besson3c

I would definitely plan on virtualizing your web server. In fact, I pretty much recommend every new server be virtualized these days where it makes sense. It makes building your next one so much easier, it makes providing a test environment for you also easy. Snapshots and virtual disks also come in handy as well. If you want to do this, Linux is going to be a better option than FreeBSD for your VM host.

Hmmm, didn't think about that. I'll get to researching that too.

besson3c · Jan 22, 2009, 09:59 AM

I would test each of these OSes as VM guests, MallyMal. I suggest VMWare Server for your VM host. It was recently updated to version 2 and is actually super easy to install and use. It's also completely free. Other options include Xen (Slicehost and Linode are powered by Xen) or libvirt/KVM for VM hosts, but I think you will find VMWare Server the easiest and most mature of these options, although Xen will provide some extra benefits (which you may not need).

Seriously, I used to think that for simple stuff it wasn't worth worrying about virtualizing, but even with a single server being virtualized really adds a lot of convenience. It's worth at least looking into.

First of all, the whole paradigm for installing applications is much different than it is under OS X. In OS X you generally hit Versiontracker or Macupdate to find stuff. In the BSDs/Linuxes you hit their built-in software repository to download and install stuff over the internet. So, picking a system for installing applications is an important consideration, among other things.

FreeBSD is designed to be a server, and it does that very well. However, it's a little harder to get setup and going than Linux. It is designed to provide you with a very minimal install, and to build your applications on top of this through the great FreeBSD ports collection. FreeBSD ports is the best Unix package management system available, I think, short of the OS X application bundle thing. It has the best selection, and is super reliable. What you will not get on FreeBSD are benefits such as LVM, and I wouldn't recommend using it as a VM host. It doesn't really work at all as a VM guest in Xen either (at least, I've never gotten the 64 bit version working). FreeBSD is also not really GUI focused like something like Redhat is. I would recommend FreeBSD if you are looking for something very fast, stable, and secure. Its command line tools are similar or virtually identical to OS X's.

CentOS is the free version of Redhat Enterprise Edition. It is a full blown Linux OS. By default it will install a GUI and all sorts of other stuff. It will be easier to setup and use, although you will find its RPM repository (used for installing applications) not as comprehensive and robust as FreeBSD ports. LVM (used for expanding and shrinking partitions) is extremely handy if you want a multiple partition setup (and for a server you probably should setup separate partitions for directories such as /var, /usr, /tmp, /boot, etc. It includes GUIs for configuring stuff, and of course there is a lot of support available. Anybody that is running Redhat or Fedora can help you with most things...

I haven't actually used Ubuntu Server yet, but I would imagine that it is similar enough to Ubuntu Client. Ubuntu Client is designed to be a MS Windows competitor, so it is probably the closest you will find to something like OS X Server on Linux in terms of being GUI focused. It's built-in repository is very nice, better than Redhat's I would say. I have no idea how the performance, stability, and security of Ubuntu Server check out. You will no doubt find more people using Ubuntu as a client and a server. You'll get LVM in Ubuntu, and it works fine as VM host as well.

Does this help?

MallyMal · Jan 22, 2009, 10:10 AM

Yes, this helps me a lot, Besson. I think I'll give CentOS a shot first then go from there. So, from what you are saying...Apache, MySQL, PHP etc will be in the repository? Sounds good.

besson3c · Jan 22, 2009, 10:34 AM

Yup, they definitely are.

MallyMal · Jan 22, 2009, 10:47 AM

Thanks for all of the info! One more thing. What about driver compatibilty with the hardware I will be buying? How I check on these kind of things?

Thanks again!

OreoCookie · Jan 22, 2009, 11:15 AM

You can always try PC-BSD (based on FreeBSD, but easier to install) or OpenSolaris.

besson3c · Jan 22, 2009, 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by MallyMal

Thanks for all of the info! One more thing. What about driver compatibilty with the hardware I will be buying? How I check on these kind of things?

Thanks again!

It depends on what hardware you have in mind. Some will be included in the kernel (e.g. RAID controllers, NICs, etc., USB HID), others you can find on the web (e.g. which video cards the NVidia and ATI drivers support). Others may be supported by user-installed drivers.

Does this Dell have any special hardware other than the video card?

MallyMal · Jan 22, 2009, 12:00 PM

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

You can always try PC-BSD (based on FreeBSD, but easier to install) or OpenSolaris.

OK, I'll put those on the list to check out also. Thanks.

Originally Posted by besson3c

It depends on what hardware you have in mind. Some will be included in the kernel (e.g. RAID controllers, NICs, etc., USB HID), others you can find on the web (e.g. which video cards the NVidia and ATI drivers support). Others may be supported by user-installed drivers.

Does this Dell have any special hardware other than the video card?

Cool, I don't think there is anything special but wanted to prepared if there was something.