Would u install GENTOO as a SERVER?

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Yamakasi · Post by **Yamakasi** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 9:50 pm

Hi everybody,

Would u use Gentoo as a Server or Workstation purpose?

thanks

Post by **pjp** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 9:56 pm

I am using it on a workstation. As for using it on a server, I wouldn't recommened anyone use linux unless they knew what they were doing. After meeting that requirement, I would recommend Gentoo.

rac · Post by **rac** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 10:07 pm

forums.gentoo.org runs Gentoo.

thegarbageman · Post by **thegarbageman** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 10:16 pm

We run Gentoo at my company. Our SQL server, File server - In fact I am running a Gentoo workstation that is part of a cluster.

mathiasg · Post by **mathiasg** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 10:28 pm

Installed gentoo last week as replacement for the old SuSE on our local server (FTP,WWW,MySQL, Samba,Battlenet). Works like a charm.
But I use it also on my desktop. KDE works fine and I really like Mosfets Liquid Engine :)
The speed is great, even on a 266P2 CPU (server)
Gentoo is not that bloated as SuSE & co. I really dont need such GUI crap like Yast to install my distro. A good manual is miles better than a wannabe intelligent installation wizard ;-)
Just my two cents

erebus · Post by **erebus** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 10:35 pm

Yep and already have.. upgraded our server from Mandrake 8.2 to Gentoo (1.4 cd install).. O.k. the first try at installing gentoo on there didn't go that well but that was a dodge power supply problem.. the second time round it worked a dream.

Its currently being using to route for 4-5 computers, serve html+php+java-servlets+mysql, email, ftp and mp3 whore to all the computers on the network and with any luck also become a direct connect hub sometime in the near future..

As long as you know what your doing it great.. much better than other distributions.. particularly because of the way it give you a base install and then install all the applications you need.. where as with most distributions they give you all they've got and then you have to spend 30mins-1 hour unselecting all the crap you don't need on a server..

BLASTER_ · Post by **BLASTER_** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 10:54 pm

I love Gentoo, but Debian stable may be a better choice. depends on your enviroment and the amount of money you want to spend on it. (it has to compile its security updates)

timbo · Post by **timbo** » Fri Oct 11, 2002 2:09 am

I have an old PC at home that I want to set up as a server to do the following things;

Firewall internal PC (later PC's) from the internet.
Play mp3's from a large HD to my Yamaha amp for background music instead of playing CD's all the time. (use alsaplayer or something)
File server for user files instead of storing them on the pc.

What apps would I need to do these things and would it be hard to achieve. Could I manage it all via webmin or something similar.

Regards
Tim

reves · Post by **reves** » Fri Oct 11, 2002 3:51 pm

O.k. the first try at installing gentoo on there didn't go that well but that was a dodge power supply problem

I though they made cars...

I have a Gentoo server at my appartment, but just for messing around with nothing serious.

BackSeat · Post by **BackSeat** » Fri Oct 11, 2002 8:57 pm

Absolutely Gentoo is good for servers. I'm running a business providing IT services using Gentoo. You need to be careful about updates, and you need a good knowledge of both Linux in general and Gentoo in particular, but yes, it is suitable.

BS

TenPin · Post by **TenPin** » Sun Oct 13, 2002 2:46 pm

I would use FreeBSD to run a server. Not had much experience of it myself, I go by the advice of many others...

oniq · Post by **oniq** » Sun Oct 13, 2002 3:52 pm

I'm running Gentoo on my laptop currently, so its my workstation

. However, I don't see why you wouldn't run Gentoo on a server. You get the latest source from portage... but I do think you should know what you are doing with Linux before you put your server online

There are always new vulnerbilities emerging, so you would have to keep up on what new bugs and patches are around.

cozminsky · Post by **cozminsky** » Sun Oct 13, 2002 5:45 pm

One thing that would make gentoo less than ideal as a server is the fact that it will always have a compiler by default. This will allow an intruder to compile the tools to compromise you system locally. However I would say it wouldn't be an issue if you had a testing system where all the packages you required were compiled and then transfer them to your server.

squanto · Post by **squanto** » Mon Oct 14, 2002 3:49 am

I am learning about setting up a Linux server via my server via Gentoo.
Going to be mail (already in process) and web server (not yet started) and DNS if I can smooth talk some techies down on campus

to open some ports.

I figure, since I don't make any money off of my server, if it gets comprimised and I lose all my data, oh well, no big deal, but I will be backing it up weekly.

-Andrew

Luminion · Post by **Luminion** » Mon Oct 14, 2002 8:59 am

My recommendation is to run Gentoo everywhere but production servers. You can't afford putting compilation loads on them; and normally Debian's packaging is better verified. I run Gentoo on desktop and local home server; if I were to raise a production system I'd put Debian on it.

mrchuckles · Post by **mrchuckles** » Mon Oct 14, 2002 1:31 pm

Debian is a far more robust server environment than Gentoo. Everything about Debian is stable, and it's package testing process is bar none. Gentoo is great, but it's not ready for a production server environment that must meet business demands. However, if this is for a testing or home environment, I doubt it would really matter.

FWIW, I use Gentoo on my desktop, Debian on my work servers (where Linux is appropriate).

Sunner · Post by **Sunner** » Mon Oct 14, 2002 1:58 pm

My preference is Gentoo for my workstation, for servers I prefer something with more focus on stability, rather than bleeding edge and performance, OpenBSD being my first choice, then Debian/stable.

For servers/workstations that require commercial support, we run RedHat, which is also the commercial distro I've used the most, though I wouldn't mind trying out SuSE if the subject came up.

phong · Post by **phong** » Mon Oct 14, 2002 5:32 pm

I've always felt that Gentoo is _more_ suited to servers than it is to Desktops. The most time consuming build is your GUI, and there is quite a bit of configuration involved in getting it set up nice. OTOH, the base install is very secure (no services by default), and security updates are available very quickly. That makes it great for servers in my mind.

ebrostig · Post by **ebrostig** » Mon Oct 14, 2002 8:38 pm

I guess the REAL answer is: It depends.

It really depends on what you are going to run on the server and how mission critical it is. Gentoo shouldn't be used on a 99.99% server, i.e needs an uptime of 99.99 or higher.

There is also a lot of commercial systems that are only certified against certain distributions and also against only a specific version within the distribution. Oracle is a very good example of said system. I do however, run Oracle 9.2.0.1 on my Gentoo PC (but that's only because I know what I'm doing when it comes to Oracle, hint hint).

In general, I think Gentoo is not a better or a worse platform to use as a server. A lot of it has to do with the sysadmin, maybe more than which distro to use.

Bottom line:
- Define your needs
- Verify that all software can run/be supported.
- Only run services needed.
- Pay more attention to security issues than to new software releases.
- Implement and TEST your backup strategy. Make sure you have tested restore (You'd be surprised how many enterprise customer who have never tried to restore what they have backed up. THAT can be costly!)

Make sure that it is a s stable as possible. Don't allow users to log in to the server, but use client programs to connect to the seerver programs they need. Since it is a server, nobody should really work on it

Erik

kemical · Post by **kemical** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 8:27 am

eh, i run a gentoo webserver out of my apt, no gui, just apache, mysql, php, ,sendmail, dns2go, etc, and the server cruises right along day by day

i would recommend gentoo for a server

MTZ · Post by **MTZ** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 8:28 am

Im running 3 workstation and 2 servers with Gentoo

bos_mindwarp · Post by **bos_mindwarp** » Sat Oct 19, 2002 3:31 pm

For me gentoo is interesting as a server, not as much as a workstation. There are no real enterprise distros imho, sure there is redhat advanced server, but besides the fact that it has kernel for SMP and bigmem it works pretty much the same as any redhat.
I need for example more then 1024 threads/process, which means either trying to install NGPT from IBM (oh yeah it would be ubercool to have it as an ebuild), or patching glibc and rebuilding it myself. Both methods have their pros/cons which leads us to other debate

The possibility of installing packages you really need, without all that bloatware makes it perfect for servers. Optimization, preemtible kernel, etc, doesn't make things worse =)

Next week we are installing gentoo on a 6-Way intel server, with scsi-raid.
If all goes well I might post some stats.

ebichu · Post by **ebichu** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 10:16 am

"Owl" (http://www.openwall.org/Owl/) looks promising as a secure server platform. It is also based on a BSD ports system and can be built from source.

Lovechild · Post by **Lovechild** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 10:24 am

The server in my house runs Mandrake - but that's because my father set that one up. I wanted Debian back when we installed it, but now I'm trolling for upgrading the whole thing to Gentoo. Also an exellent change to setup some distcc on our network.

SeaPig · Post by **SeaPig** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 1:28 pm

I am about to get two new database (postgres) servers here at work for a new application that we are developing. I would really like to run gentoo on them, but am having a hard time convincing my boss that this is a good idea. If we go with redhat we can buy redhat support. But on the other hand the _only_ app on these servers will be the database, and speed is going to be an issue, so gentoo makes sense to me. Are you guys that run debian buying third-party support? I guess I am not sure how much pressure I should put on my boss to let me put gentoo on these machines because they are going to be mission-critical.

Would u install GENTOO as a SERVER?

Would u install GENTOO as a SERVER?

Gentoo as a server OS, security concern