Server Opinion

[Daniel_DBS]

Hello all... I am a jag customer on an sdx and i now have the need to setup a server in my office for intranet purposes...

Here is what I have to work with:

An old Dell computer (model unknown)
P3-1000MHz
1 gig of RAM
120GB SATA hard drive
No OS

This server will need to be able to handle up to 50 simultaneous connections. It will be used for a company CMS system as well as some other tasks...

My question is... What OS should I run? I am up to installing and learning to use any linux distro.. I have some experience with debian but that was YEARS back. I also have access to Windows 98, 2000 Pro, NT4 Workstation/Server, and XP Pro... Also what sort of config options should I use? I am going to use Apache, MySQL, and PHP...

if anyone has any good pointers or anything regarding the setup please share them as I really am not sure what OS and such would do the best..

Thanks,
DBS

[jason]

Are you looking to start a war here? Asking the "what distro is best" question is dangerous territory.

First off, ask yourself what you really want to do. Windows is always easy to set up and maintain. Windows with IIS will take no more than an hour or so to have up and running. IIS though can be a lot less flexible than Apache, but it is much easier to get running. It is also pretty easy to get Apache running on Windows with one of the various WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) packages out there. The problem with non-server Windows environments is that there are limits to the number of concurrent users that can legally connect to the machine and that may cause you some problems. If you do go with Win, use 2000, XP, 2003, or Vista as they are still supported (in one way or another) by Microsoft. The 9x and NT lines are not supported by Microsoft anymore so there will be no more security updates for them.

Going Linux will get you better performance and you won't have to worry about licensing issues, but it does come with a learning curve. I got started on Red Hat way back as a freshman in college, so I've been partial to it all along. I've been a big fan of CentOS for the past year or so (which is essentially unbranded and free Red Hat Enterprise and is the OS JPC is using on their servers now). CentOS comes with an installer that is similar to the Windows installer and the yum package manager makes installing and updating software a snap--provided the software you need exists in a repository somewhere. Since you have some experience with Deb you might consider continuing on that route, either with an actual Debian release or with one of the forks. I've used Ubuntu a bit as a desktop OS and liked it (although I haven't given it much of a look as a server).

As far as other options, it really depends on what you want to do. Just make sure you follow the guidelines of the various software packages you use to ensure they're secure and make sure you keep everything updated and you should be fine.

--Jason

[Spathiphyllum]

...i now have the need to setup a server in my office for intranet purposes...

...My question is... What OS should I run? I am up to installing and learning to use any linux distro.. I have some experience with debian but that was YEARS back. I also have access to Windows 98, 2000 Pro, NT4 Workstation/Server, and XP Pro... Also what sort of config options should I use? I am going to use Apache, MySQL, and PHP...

Linux should run great on the hardware you listed; really, any of the distros. You can boot it up in GUI or CL mode to optimize your resources and it is a server-based OS by design. If the OS has drivers for your hardware, or the kernel supports that hardware innately, then Linux is the way to go. As far as which distro, there are just too many options. I started with a Debian offshoot years ago but have since moved into the Redhat packages. The industry seems to have gravitated a bit more to Redhat-based distros, so for support purposes, a larger userbase is important.

Win98 and NT4 are too dated now. Getting newly compiled binaries to run on them will become more difficult as software evolves and companies drop their patching. WinXP and Win2K would probably do OK but they are more resource intensive. If I had to go Windows, I'd use Win2K both because of its stability and slightly lighter footprint.

But of the major paths, I'd still stick with a flavor of Linux. Don't bother compiling your own kernel from source because that would be a steep curve to climb right off the bat if you have more productive work to do. Get a major, stable build that has an integrated software packaging installer and update as needed. Apache, MySQL, and PHP run great on Linux as I'm sure you've observed from your SDX. To me Apache and Linux are the killer apps of the web. That and sendmail pretty much got us to where we are today.

Have fun with your project and good luck.

[Spathiphyllum]

Wow, jason. We posted about the same time and wrote essentially the same thing. I need to check my firewall to see if you're snooping packets.

[Daniel_DBS]

Thanks for your opinions... i kinda am leaning towards linux and away from windows... ive used windows as an intranet webhost before and it wasn't as flexible as linux... I've done some reading and the majority of the forums I've been to suggest CentOS with Apache, MySQL, and PHP... i do have some times I can use to play around with and I have a couple PCs with the same specs I could setup with different distros and a windows and see which is easiest to use and which seems to run the best... im not scared of new territory or anything.. I may try testing out debian, centos, and fedora... along side of win2k...

if anyone else has something to addon.. please let me know

dbs

[Daniel_DBS]

can any of the JPC techs tell me there thoughts on the best setup?? all the responses on what peoples experiences are would really help me out

DBS

[JPC-Greg]

Linux bar none. CentOs

[Daniel_DBS]

Well i brought that machine home from work to do some playing around tonight with it... i ended up installing centos to see how well it worked.. surprisingly it wasnt hard at all to get a full LAMP module setup... performance is awesome as well... I am going to try it out in a beta test tomorrow back at the office with as many simultaneous connections at one time to see how it handles the load... if anyone else has any other suggestions im open to them..

[Daniel_DBS]

ok so i did some tests today.. i did a beta with centos 4.5, win2k, winxp, and debian and it seems that centos was the best solution... took the least amount of time to get configured and had the best performance with 30 simultaneous connections.. since i am not putting this into production for another couple of weeks i am still open for suggestions and such from people if they think they have a better solution

DBS

[JPC-Masood]

Couldn't add more to what Jason and Spath; already said very well. I'm glad your test came good for centos. I'll say go with CentOS 5 and you'll be fine for years. CentOS 4.5 is also good upto 2012 (end of life from redhat Feb 29, 2012).

[Daniel_DBS]

you know the first version of centos that i tried was centos5 but the download was corrupt... i installed it and there were some missing files.. I already had a centos4.5 disk from a while back when i was going to do a similar project and never did.. so i just used it and ran yum update and got everything up to speed... once i get around to downloading the 4GB dvd iso again ill give it a shot..

dbs

[Daniel_DBS]

ok so i got this server setup in my office now and it is working great... but i want to know if there is a free control panel similar cpanel that anyone would recommend.. it would make things so much more simple if i had something like that and could manage everything from my desk rather than going back and forth to the server room.. anyone got any ideas?? (yes i know i can just use ssh but i would rather it be gui based)

[jason]

Interworx offers a free one domain license. It is limited to one account and one email address (which I think has to be postmaster), but from my understanding it is otherwise fully functional.

There are also a few other free packages, but most aren't as full featured as something like cPanel from what I've seen. Try a search for "free control pannel" and see what you find.

--Jason

[Daniel_DBS]

ok i installed webmin/virtualmin and im not likin it to much.. i tried zpanel which sucks.. i tried some other ones i dnt remember... but ill try interworx tomorrow

[Rob]

There is a new version of zpanel called RapidCP - looks quite good.

Try Cube Panel - they offer a free 20 user licence.