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jmarcus
Apprentice
Joined: 12 Jun 2004
Posts: 197
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 Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:06 pm Post subject: Making the argument to switch to Gentoo (web hosting) |
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I have been using Gentoo, ever since I read the BSD vs Linux article at: http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/bsd4linux1.php
I help out at a hosting company that uses RH7 and RH9 and support has been discontinued, so the lead architect has asked this question:
| Quote: | | We need to find a new supported OS solution for the colo. I would prefer to move to Redhat Enterprise or Fedora, but Gentoo might be an option. |
I'm asking for help to make my argument for Gentoo.
I switched because of the most usual reasons:
I install only what I want
Optimization
Easy of compiling and installing software and perquisites, emerge
Small foot print
Bootable CD environment.
I know every process running
What would you add?
Staying up to date.
One thing that I'm embarrassed to ask is, when I do an emerge sync do any of the applications on the machine get updated or is it just the portage list? Is there an emerge command that I run to simply update all applications installed?
Apache and Tomcat
We run six separate instances of Apache and Tomcat for customers. So in /cust1/ they have their own tomcat and apache instance. How would I deal with this situation and portage?
Should I post this somewhere else? |
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thoughtform
l33t
Joined: 24 May 2004
Posts: 600
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| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:10 pm Post subject: |
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every day i do an emerge sync, then
emerge -uDpv world
that cmd will show you what packages for system and world are available for updates.
if you want them all,
emerge -uD world |
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mdshort
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Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 157
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| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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emerge -u world
would work to unless you modified your use flags...
Gentoo allows you to install multiple instances of applications, but why multiple apache's and tomcats? Why not just use virtual hosts?
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"With every rise, there is a fall." |
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tukachinchila
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Joined: 11 Mar 2005
Posts: 274
Location: Oregon
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| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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Regarding the previous posts, I think those are your best arguments for Gentoo over any other Linux distro. Portage is the main reason I have been using Gentoo for the last 3-4 years and have no reason to ever go back to anything else. If you look at all the contract jobs that are available for people needed to help companies migrate from RH Enterprise X to RH Enterprise Y, you'll see how much savings can be gained by using Gentoo instead. You never have to put in a cd and reinstall Gentoo, you just run emerge regularly to keep things up-to-date, patched, secure, and stable.
| Quote: | | We run six separate instances of Apache and Tomcat for customers. So in /cust1/ they have their own tomcat and apache instance. How would I deal with this situation and portage? |
webapp-config http://hermes.osuosl.org/doc/webapp-config-1.10-r11/html/webapp-config.8.html
| Quote: | | when I do an emerge sync do any of the applications on the machine get updated or is it just the portage list? |
"emerge sync" justs updates the list of available packages, and doesn't install any applications. So you should run "emerge sync" before running "emerge -uD world" so that you're up-to-date. |
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dbackeberg
n00b
Joined: 15 Mar 2005
Posts: 25
Location: Boston
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| Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 4:56 pm Post subject: gentoo vs. RHEL or SUSE |
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I can't speak for SUSE, but the RHEL versions of applications stay stale for extended periods of time. I feel like that's the exact opposite of what you should be trying to accomplish if you're an ISP. But then again, if these guys are still stuck on RH 7!!!!! then maybe they don't know what they're doing. How many times have they been cracked? Unless they're paying for Progeny, they have systems that are way out of date.
To me the biggest advantage of gentoo over RHEL is that you're not stuck with the frozen version of Apache, etc. that Redhat deemed to be "stable." Sure you can put in your own RPMs, but isn't the whole point of paying for software that you shouldn't have to do that? |
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dbackeberg
n00b
Joined: 15 Mar 2005
Posts: 25
Location: Boston
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| Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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| oops. got confused by "colo" and thought this was an ISP. My bad. |
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Helena
Veteran
Joined: 02 Apr 2003
Posts: 1114
Location: Den Dolder, The Netherlands
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| Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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| This post surely is in the wrong place (it's not about alternative arch, just a special application of gentoo, IMHO), but apart from that it is interesting to me. I am wondering what it needs to build a stable webserver with Gentoo. Jmarcus, what are your plans? |
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Gentoo on Alternative Architectures
