most reliable disto for server?

[CyberCat]

Hello,
I'm planning on buying parts for, and building a server in the next month. (or less)

My question is: what distribution should I use? The computer's sole purpose will be just being a server. Nothing more. The thing I want the most is reliablity (which why I have decided I will definitely NOT be using a certain operating system from the Pacific Northwest...) Once it's setup I don't want to have to be rebooting this thing anymore than once a month. (hardware problems excluded since the operating system can help broken hardware).

Or should I even be using linux? Is FreeBSD a better solution for what I'm whating?

[drummerboy195]

I have worked now in two server enviroments, one that ran Debian stable, and one that ran FreeBSD. Both of them have had excellent uptime, and handle much heavier loads than they should be able to with such limited machines, so I think that you would find from a performance standpoint there is not much difference. However, I choose Debian for my own servers, (with an OpenBSD to play with) because of the ability to have the computer track its own security updates. All you have to do is add an apt source for security updates, and you can have a fully patched box in two commands. In comparison, the way that I have seen FreeBSD administered is much more manual, with the administrator required to keep up on 1) what packages he has installed, 2) which features those packages are using, and 3) the current reccomended patches for those packages/features. The apt-get model means that I don't have to worry about any of this. That said, some will want to know why Debian, as opposed to any other flavor. Well, I found that Mandrake was a little too customized for me, and Gentoo is a little bit more administration than I would like to do over a large number of machines (I currently have 150 non-trivial changes in /etc files that I will have to hand merge sometime.) Beyond those two, I really have very little -> no experience with, so I will withold judgement.

[je_fro]

If you plan on hosting to a bunch of 1337_cR4X0r5, I'd use OpenBSD, otherwise, use OpenBSD.

[techwise]

Debian

No need to make things more complicated than Woody.

01:53:28 up 184 days, 9:46, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

/dev/hda1 4.1G 375M 3.5G 10% /
/dev/hda3 4.4G 483M 3.6G 12% /var
/dev/hda4 18G 85M 17G 1% /home

This server does:
Postfix
Vexira (virus protection)
Spamassassin
Hylafax

I have another one that runs just NetOffice.

Debian is my favorite no-brainer server distro.

Good luck,

Mike

[XiaoKJ]

OpenBSD,
debian stable,
gentoo and remove all eye-candy,
APPLE XSERVE
SUSE (for oracle and the likes),
slackware.

all in terms of pref. openbsd seems to be very stable

[je_fro]

Originally posted by XiaoKJ

gentoo and remove all eye-candy,
.....

Yeah, it might be tricky to remove all that eyecandy from a gentoo install. Better stick with OBSD or Debian.

[Hayl]

Originally posted by je_fro
Yeah, it might be tricky to remove all that eyecandy from a gentoo install. Better stick with OBSD or Debian.

especially considering there is no eyecandy in a base Gentoo install -- it doesn't even have an X server. which is what you want anyway on a server box.

[Gertrude]

Whatever your the most comfortable with. Really there isn't a whole lot different between most linux distros thats going to make any difference to you other than package management if it has any, how it handles init, and the community around it for any support that you may need.

Or should I even be using linux? Is FreeBSD a better solution for what I'm whating?

What is it that you are going to be doing with this server, and in what environment is it going to be in? If you never used FreeBSD I would say stick to whatever Linux distro that you have the most experience with.

[ZenelithCalling]

You might also consider CentOS also. I'm tinkering with it to act as an Oracle database.

[CyberCat]

What is it that you are going to be doing with this server, and in what environment is it going to be in? If you never used FreeBSD I would say stick to whatever Linux distro that you have the most experience with.

I'm wanting this to be a server for http, ftp and imap.

Once I have the thing setup I'll remove the monitor/keyboard/etc and lock the box away in a closet somewhere with nothing more then an ethernet connection. Then I'll do all maintanance/upkeep work through telnet or ssh (preferably the latter).

[je_fro]

Originally posted by CyberCat
Then I'll do all maintanance/upkeep work through telnet or ssh (preferably the latter).

If I were you I wouldn't even consider using telnet. Use SSH or a serial line, that's what I say.

[CyberCat]

I wouldn't even consider using telnet.

Exactly. Due certain security concerns, I would only use telnet if I absolutely didn't have any other choice.

[thaddaeus]

I run an Mandrake 10.0 Server (LAMP setup), Samba, f@h, Admin with webmin. No x installed, I've only had to reboot in the past couple of months due to a hardware upgrade, and placing the server in a rack. I upgraded from a celeron to a athalon 64 bit, mobo, mem, and all (cept harddrives) and rebooted without any problems, no need to reconfigure. It also has some security settings which make securing it (access wise) very simple in the setup. I havn't tried debian or *BSD yet, but from what i hear once it's setup, its very reliable and efficient. Slackware is also another distro i recomend, Less messy when it comes to configuring servers.