Hi guys, I wanna get a new server and I saw that i need to choose OS i.e. CentOS, Redhad, FreeSBS etc. Which one is the best one? Also what does it mean for my harddisk to be RAID mount? toby
CentOS 4.5 (64bit if system supports) is the choice of most people RAID : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks
Hmm...I tried it but downgraded to 4.5 SATA and some severe I/O issues. Better let this new branch mature enough...
The version, better known as distribution or distro you choose will be determiend by your needs. If you are brand new to the world of Linux odds are you will want to use something like cpanel. If this is the case then you will have to run a RedHat based distro. CentOS is based on RedHat enterprise, just totally free. If you want more control over the server via the command line then you will probably want a Debian based distro. This is my preferred server solution.
I prefer FreeBSD for my hosting machines but in the Linux world I often use Red Hat Enterprise and Fedora.
If you need to ask which OS then the chances are you aren't a *nix guru (yet!) . So, you would probably be best to choose, as someone else mentioned, a RedHat flavour of *nix and also have CPanel (which is also known as WHM if you are getting a dedicated server) installed. That way you will have a great degree of web based control over your server and at the same time you'll be able to log in with SSH and play around at the command line etc. So, if your host offers CentOS, RedHat or Fedora with WHM then that's a good plan for you I think. Gary
Cpanel is a must for someone new to servers. Also, I am an experienced administrator but still use cpanel for a lot of things because it makes managing my multiple sites streamlined and easy.
since 9 years i use SuSE - always newest ( current ) version. since i have started my own root server last year - I also opted for same distro and same version as on my laptops. whatever you chose, I recommend you use that distro you also have offline for your work. that allows you to fully simulate any server situation of solve problems you might have offline before applying online. I am most happy with SuSE as a server OS. since nearly 2 years Novell/SuSE Linux is used by top level IT by Swiss government - see http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS3995951203.html I see no reason why it could be any lesser choice for efficient private / commercial servers.
Centos for server with cPanel (Centos is actualy RedHat Enterprise), they work very well together Other than that I like debian but it's just a matter of what you like best.
I recommend CentOS 4.5 with DirectAdmin or interworx-cp First you must know what you wanna do, then you can say which controlpanel you need etc.
cent os or debian are pretty good these days. I wouldn't go with red hat, because I'm not fond of rpm packages, instead I'd choose a dpk one. Ubuntu is also an option...
FreeBSD is my recommended choice by far, able to cope with a higher throughput, and unrivalled stability. You can use cpanel etc with it too.
CentOS is good, but if you get Red Hat Enterprise 4 then make sure you dont miss it Its too good with a great support from Redhat. If you choose softlayer you would get enterprise license for free. CentOS has some compatible issues in some cases which is rare though
I did not read other peoples comment. But if you gonna use it for Hosting then you may try with CentOS 4.5 or RedHat Linux Enterprise Edition (remember enterprise edition is paid but same as CentOS) Regards, Tj
One or a few machines; Slackware or any BSD, you can't miss there. More or a lot of machines; Debian or SLES/SUSE. RH is a very common choice, and I even tho I like working on those systems, they've let me down even in the simplest things many times, so when there is a choice I tend to avoid them.