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Old 03-13-2008, 08:23 PM   #1
terfy
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Dedicated Webserver Distro


I was wondering if any of you guys know any webserver distro ??

Like: only very basic and super hardened security with webserver as apache/nginx w. mysql in bash-only environment ??

I seek such distro, but cannot find any.. I Know I can make one myself with eg debian without X. but it would not be as hardened nor perfect as if a team already works on one..

so, anyone knows anything about such ??

Please.. !!
 
Old 03-13-2008, 08:31 PM   #2
indienick
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Surprisingly, all that is required to "super harden" any distro is to make sure it has a properly configured firewall set up.

A search for "linux firewall" should yield some favourable results, and if it comes down to "Which one should I choose," it's a simple answer: the one with the best documentation.
 
Old 03-16-2008, 05:12 AM   #3
terfy
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and which distro is specialized into that ???

anyone ?
 
Old 03-16-2008, 06:41 AM   #4
reddazz
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How about CentOS? A lot of web hosting firms seem to offer it. You have the advantage of selinux and firewall config tools such as system-config-securitylevel.
 
Old 03-18-2008, 03:33 AM   #5
terfy
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hmm. I dont think you understand..

I look for an OS with this geeky style as: as the old times says "DOS-ONLY" OS.. so no X all graphical stuff.
Just a console on the screen to login and type in configuration commands only.. easy and steady u know.

I was trying such OS some years ago, but damn I can't remember what the name was... the only thing on the distro was some network tools/security management. and apache w. mysql/php

It was all booting the system.. and some seconds later it was ready to put in commands from the terminal/dos/shell- only environment.. it was installed directly from the distro-cd.

Any familiar you know of ?? please help me.. I dont want any of these bloated (please not flamewar me) graphical environments when the only thing I need is what I wrote..

There MUST be some distro specialized in JUST that.. !!

Terfy

Last edited by terfy; 03-18-2008 at 03:35 AM.
 
Old 03-18-2008, 05:42 AM   #6
reddazz
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Any distro can do what you want. There is no need to install a GUI if you do not need it.
 
Old 03-18-2008, 08:19 AM   #7
indienick
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With Debian, you can have a fully-functional, non-graphical install in about 20 minutes. It's all about what you choose to install.

I have two servers at home (one for media, one for backup), and neither of them have an X server installed.

At work here, we use ClarkConnect. It is a Redhat-based, no-GUI distro, and all of the admin controls can be accessed remotely through a web interface. The version we use is really old, but rock solid.
 
Old 03-18-2008, 08:32 AM   #8
slackhack
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yeah, just use debian. it's fast and as light as you want it to be.
 
Old 03-18-2008, 03:45 PM   #9
terfy
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thank you for your responses. I use debian already as my desktop. so it would be easy to install this for me I think..

but I miss this firewall/webserver only distro.. shame I didnt remember the name of it.. :-(

ok I try with debian.. any of you know a good firewall made well for debian ? more security = better

thanks again
 
Old 03-18-2008, 03:48 PM   #10
indienick
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...are you perhaps thinking of FloppyFW?
I remember using that as a firewall/router distro, back in the day, before I bought a wireless router and needed to transform an old clunker of a PC.

I don't know if it came with a webserver, out of the box, though.
 
Old 03-18-2008, 06:30 PM   #11
terfy
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it was not FloppyFW.

it was a CD (very small datausage, smaller than debian netinst cd), and it booted and installed as default, a firewall, apache, mysql and php.. at boot I could choose how all the 4 stuff should be configurated before finally click install.

then it deleted all partition, created new ones, installed it with the conf I chose, and restart = wupti.. ready to go fast with console login (to be able to watch stats and reconfigure and such). It was totally nice.
 
Old 03-18-2008, 09:24 PM   #12
slackhack
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was it this?
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

i've never heard of it, but it was the first google hit for "apache linux."

this line might make me a little nervous:

"The default configuration is not good from a securtiy point of view and it's not secure enough for a production environment - please don't use XAMPP in such environment."

but if you know what you're doing I guess it shouldn't be any harder to secure than any other install. they also say this:

"Since LAMPP 0.9.5 you can make your XAMPP installation secure by calling »/opt/lampp/lampp security«."

so that helps a little, I guess.

personally I think you're better off just installing debian or slackware with the apps you need and securing it yourself, but to each his/her own.
 
Old 03-24-2008, 04:06 PM   #13
terfy
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yeah.- I know about XAMPP and I do even use it now. but i want to try a distro which has this goal to fullfill.

I will try debian with just what I need, and see if I can secure it myself. I just hoped "someone" smarter than me could do it for me.

terfy
 
  


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