which Services aren't needed?
 

Hi,

I have Redhat 7.3 and I'm trying to shutdown some unneeded services using, serviceconf but the trouble is I don't know which ones I really need and which ones I don't!?

I could post in the services I am running so you can see which ones I should shut down? I don't want to shut something down and find that it messes up the whole system! so I thought I'd ask some pros first!

I have heard that the fewer you run the more secure you are?

Thanks all for your help

Nester

Posting what you have running would definetely help.

That is a fair argument, you should never run a service if you are not using it for a couple of reasons. Security and wasted resources come to mind first. There are many other things to consider as well, for instance patching the system.

Hi jdc2048,

Thanx for quick reply.

Here is what's running;

anacron
apmd
atd
autofs
crond
gpm
ip6tables
ipchains
iptables
isdn
keytable
kudzu
ipd
netfs
network
nfslock
portmap
random
rawdevices
sendmail
sgi_fam
sshd
syslog
xinetd

About the patches, yes I will definatley get that sorted, I am not actually online with my linux box at the moment for that reason, so I will use another system and transfer them.

Thanks for your help, does it look like I'm running too many services?

ps: I'm in run level 5

Nester

Depends on whether you actually run anything
on all of these ... (well, I don't know what a few
of them are for, they's non-existing on Slackware)
[sgi_fam, ipd, keytable] ... ipchains is obsolete since
you have itptables, ip6tables - I doubt you actually
use IP v6 protocol, the others in the list
you'd only need if you actually utilize them ...
do you ssh to your machine(sshd)? Have you got
oracle server running (rawdevice)? Sendmail - are
you using your local sendmail to relay mails to your
ISP or do you use a pop3 client? portmap, nfs, netfs
... any networked shares? Kudzu - changing hardware
on a daily basis? :) gpm - using mouse in full-screen
console? crond, atd, anacron - scheduled commands?

Cheers,
Tink

Hi,

I have never used ssh (is that secure shell?) I have no oracle server running or any networked shares, I'm not on the internet with linux at the moment but when I do I will use pop3 for email.
I change hardware sometimes but not too often, I would like to keep the mouse in full screen, and about scheduled commands, I haven't configured any so it would only be what is done by default.

So I could pretty much stop all those services, If I ever needed them and try to start them from a shell, would they still start or would I have to reenable them from serviceconf again?

One more question, which is the best firewall I should be using, iptables?

Thanks for your advice

Nester

Yes, you could disable most of these. What I would recommend is disabling one or two at a time and then verify that everything still works ok.

The apmd one is related to power management (i think), so you may want to leave that one running. You will also want to leave the iptables running.

iptables is a stateful packet inspection firewall, so yes. ipchains was the older firewall which was useful, but is not nearly as good as iptables.

another thing you will want to check is what is running under xinetd. Check out your /etc/xinetd.d directory and /etc/xinetd.conf configuration file to see what is running there.

Hi,

I have just checked xinetd.d and everything is disabled except for sgi_fam which I think is a file monitoring daemon? Is that really needed at the moment as I'm not online with Linux yet?

The xinetd.conf just says some defaults, and include /etc/xinetd.d/
so I presume that is just sgi_fam again?

Thanks for all your help, this site is great, I will stick around here. I'm very new to linux but I'm already learning so much!

Thanks again,

Nester