Best server distro
 

I will be needing to setup a server in the near future and have decided to do a little background research.

The server will need to be stable, secure, and fast. It will need to run apache, php, mysql, cgi perl script. It will need to be powerful so a webserver farm will be needed.

Any suggestions? If you need more info before giving me a better answer, please let me know.

Thanks

For a server distro, I'd recommend CentOS (a recompiled RHEL) or Debian.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of CentOS and Debian as server farms?

Unlike eg. Ubuntu or Fedora, Centos and Debian have rather 'old' versions of packages. The benefit of it is that they have been heavily tested for a long time, which ensures a system's stability and security. However, as everything with linux, it's a matter of preference and distros are probably as secure as we configure them:)

The major difference you will see is how they install, how they upgrade packages, and how they use startup scripts. Other than that, from a performance stand point, I have used both and I found that they were very similar. However I am more of a debian fanatic so I would lean towards debian. But you should use which one makes sense to you.

So both are equally as good for LVS?

I'd assume so, but I've never played with LVS.

If that is the case, then it's probably best if I stick to Debian because I am familiar with apt. However CentOS seems to have a better community...

hmm, I very much doubt it, but what do I know?:)

You may know more than me! But I "feel" that CentOS's community is better when it comes to Servers. I may be wrong, I just read someone's opinion, but I have no direct experience of this.

However, these people or person seems to think that CentOS is the best!!??

http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:...&gl=uk&strip=0

It's linux - there will be as many opinions as there are distros:)
What I meant is the community itself, not the suitability of centos or debian as a server.
If you prefer the debian way - use debian, if the redhat/centos way - use centos.

I don't think I would worry about the community too much. They both are constantly developed, and if you have Questions you know where LQ is. So I really think you should go with the one that makes sense to you. As you said you are familiar with apt. The equivalent on Cent OS is yum (Yellow dog update manager). Just incase you were curios.

I would suggest CentOS or Debian. As a general rule my preference is Debian because of the way their update cycle works and a preference for deb archives over rpm.

That being said, any currently active version of Linux meets the criteria you're looking for more or a less. On a server less is more, you want as few extraneous processes running as possible, you want to install only the required libraries, applications, and scripts for your application. This reduces the number of possible attack vectors and keeps things easy to manage.

How many hits are you dealing with a day? Is your content multimedia heavy or light? Are you dealing with many web applications and scripts or just a few? What kind of data transfer levels are you expecting?

There are more factors you could tweak during installation of any version of Linux that will make a more significant performance difference than the actual version of Linux you choose to install.

Almost any answer you get to this question (including my own) is going to be biased by personal preference and past experiences. When it really comes down to it, any actively maintained stripped down Linux is a great start for a server.

LVS is not the easiest thing to get working reliably under any system last I experimented with it, however it is powerful once you do. Your least concern is your distribution of Linux if you're going to use LVS. Pick the one you're most familiar with... although I *think* there are some semi-setup packages for CentOS.

i suggest red hat and suse

I use slackware ... isn`t it good for a server ?