We're getting a new fileserver in and I'm looking at SuSE Enterprise Server or Fedora Core 2 for the OS with a view to possibly migrate the current fileservers as well (currently on RH8).

## Disclaimer: I'm not a fan of RedHat.

Snags: Last time I looked, at least two RAID controllers had binary-only drivers linked to specific kernels. Hence the FC2 - I'm assuming the RAID support moved from RH > Fedora (but will check before I decide ).
While I'd like the cost savings, I'm dubious about the _actual_ savings from using FC2 on production kit- is this just me being paranoid? Can anyone using it advise on pitfalls?

From what I've seen / heard SLES is less bloated and runs faster than RHEL - but most of this is perception rather than actual figures / bare server comparison.
My main concerns are stability, performance and EOL - easy to use would be nice, but we'll sacrifice that if we need to (we have Slack servers).
Can anyone using SLES comment?

edit: By which I mean (among other things), does what you get justify the price?

I'm likely to end up evaluating both options, but wondered if anyone can save me some legwork.

Thanks

I have one word for you - GENTOO. Stable, solid and fully customizable :-) The price is nill or as much as you like.

I know about Gentoo, but:

I doubt it has the drivers for the aforementioned raid controllers (limited binary releases for RH, SuSE and possibly Mandrake IIRC).
I have no idea how "cutting-edge" (yeah, I hate the phrase) their hardware support is - the new server is really "new".
I _definitely_ don't want to install a _server_ over the internet - which means I would have to pay anyway.
I don't have the time or inclination to compile the fileserver packages from scratch (which is how we're patching the RH8 boxes at the moment and would like to get away from), so most of the Gentoo advantage is lost there.

Plus I have no idea how well it performs in a production environment or on my hardware and I have no inclination to try it out "to see what happens".

I know that SLES _will_ support 99% of my hardware without issues and I can tweak it for the rest (same with fc2 assuming the RH packages were moved over), which is why I asked for comments on fc2 and SLES.

You don't have to install Gentoo over the internet. It's the same as the rest of the distro's out there - you get iso's or yes you can get each source package individually. Gentoo can be compilied from scratch or installed with packages like RH or SL so it's not that far off from the rest. Gentoo is about "cutting edge" (hate it too) as it gets. Anything that the others support, i can almost say that Gentoo will as well - and them some. Gentoo will have support for your hardware long before RH or SL. Those distributions are "snapshots" but Gentoo evolves as you go. I understand where you are coming from and you are right - why bother? Well, it cost nothing, extremely stable and SECURE. I have used all of the other distro's for a server and Gentoo wins hands down; no questions asked. The next in line would obviously be Debian or Slackware. Just my 2 cents.

As for those binary drivers, i don't know about that. I had to install Trend Micro on a Gentoo server with only RH and SL support. So i "rpm2targz" it or i installed RH and after i installed the binary, i took the files off the RH machine and moved them to the Gentoo server. Kind of annoying, but it works. That was the only problem i have ever run into with the Gentoo server.

My word would be SLACKWARE personally

But we at least both agree that SuSE and Fedora are inappropriate for this situation.

I would definitely not use anything "bleeding edge" for production (i.e. FC2). I know that SuSE is very popular as a server OS, especially in Europe. I can tell you from years of visiting customer and prospect data centers that I've only ever seen two Linices in production: Red Hat, and SuSE.

I would avoid the following:
Unsupported OSs in production
Bleeding edge in production
Fragmenting your install base (i.e. having lots of different distros installed side by side, since that will greatly complicate your support and upgrade duties)

I would pick something based on the following criteria:
A distro that you can standardize on and use for nearly every server (hopefully 100% of them)
One with very active security maintainers and timely security patches
Good support resources
Good vendor support with drivers (most hardware vendors create binary-only drivers and build them for just a few distros--they *may* work on other distros, but you have no gaurantee and if anything goes wrong, the vendor will tell you to use a supported platform)

Here's the stupid newbie's question. If you already know that RH8 works, why not install it first to get the box running, then worry later about migrating the farm to something else?

Yeah, we'd use Woody throughout if the hardware was supported, but....
FC2 was my backup plan if SuSE doesn't have hardware support for the most recent kit. Though I like the lifespan of RHES ( 5 years) I've experienced RH "support" at $WORK-1 and wasn't terribly impressed - whether we got the FNG(s) at the support desk I don't know, but it's warned me off.
Agreed (from .co.uk), but there's a fair bit of Debian in a few of the larger places I've seen. Admittedly it's more for mail / web / fileserving than databases.
That's my aim - we currently have a roughly 50/25/25 setup [RH/Slack/Debian]. (DISCLAIMER: installed in stages before I started here by a departed distro-whore). The older hardware will probably go to Woody and stay there until it dies / gets replaced. The new (and newer) kit is likely to get SLES, so we can get 20/80 debian/suse and then move everything to SuSE as the older kit gets replaced.

<snip agreed with bits>

I've blagged an evaluation copy of SLES to play with, so we'll see how that goes.

Sorry, must have been composing when you posted.....

The problem isn't whether RH8 works on the newest machine (and I don't know if it does) or getting the box running, it's more that we're fed up rolling our own patches for the RH8 boxes and I'd like to use a supported standard OS to save me hassle.

If it does work, there's a danger that (given current workload) it might stay RH8 for too long. I have to move them over anyway, so I should do it now while I have time.

My two cents:

It seems to me that even if you try to migrate to the RedHat or SuSE Enterprise release on the newest server(s), you are likely to still have to run a mix of distros, because these latest "ES" releases are unlikely to work on your oldest servers.

Assuming that is the case, then it would also seem to make sense (from an administrative workload perspective) to try to reduce the total number of distributions/releases you run, while avoiding unnecessary expenditure.

If, for the moment, you set aside the two servers that require binary only raid drivers, and that presumably run RH8, it seems very probable that all the rest will do just fine with either Slackware or Debian "Stable." Standardizing on one of these two (and if Slackware is selected, standardizing on one release) would then provide you a consistant administrative environment across all but two of your servers. At the same time, you would avoid the expense of an "Enterprise" distribution, and you already know from your own experience that both Debian and Slackware are extremely reliable, robust, distributions that lend themselves to stripped down server installations that don't include the kitchen sink.

Also: Slackware is at the verge of releasing Slackware 10.0, and it is possible that your problematic raid drivers will work...I don't know, because I don't know what raid controllers you have, but even if you had to do a little extra work on these two machines, it might well be worth it to be able to provide essentially the same administrative environment throughout the entire server room.

I don't really see a way for you to achieve that homogeneous environment by migrating to an "Enterprise" Linux, unless you are prepared to standardize your hardware more and eliminate all the older machines now, without regard to their remaining useful service life. Even if you don't need to replace all the hardware, the cost of several new server class machines and a couple dozen "ES" licenses can quickly equal the cost of one's salary for the better part of a year.

And in this economy, that too is something to consider.