About Web Development by Activo » Linux server http://www.activoinc.com/blog Web Development in a Web 2.0 World Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:25:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 CentOS 5.3 Install Essentials http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/08/23/centos-5-3-install-essentials/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/08/23/centos-5-3-install-essentials/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:13:12 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=300 When I setup a new server, I typically install it with nothing checked in the packages list of the installation process. I like using yum update first and then running yum install on the packages that I absolutely need. Clean and mean is my favorite way to run a Linux server. Two main reason are behind this: one is performance, this is a bit obvious: the less you got on the HD and processes running in the background the faster the server. Two is security: the less software you have installed your vulnerability “surface area” is smaller.

While installing it clean is great, I do have a minimum set of tools that I usually need in any server. Most of these tools are small and do not require background services so I install them almost by default. You should check if they suite your needs and use it at your discretion. Hint: the goal here is to copy and paste once a new server is installed.

(correction) Before I can use the next command I need to install wget:

yum install wget

Add the Atomic repository (newer versions of LAMP, some security packages):

wget -q -O - http://www.atomicorp.com/installers/atomic.sh | sh

Install basic packages:

yum install unzip sendmail ntsysv fail2ban logrotate pdns

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]]> http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/08/23/centos-5-3-install-essentials/feed/ 0 CentOS for Linux Servers: a cut above http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/11/30/centos-for-linux-servers-a-cut-above/ http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2008/11/30/centos-for-linux-servers-a-cut-above/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:44:06 +0000 Ron Peled http://www.activoinc.com/blog/?p=143 It has been almost a year that we are using CentOS for all of our new servers instead of Ubuntu Server, and it is a great success! This article describes the few reasons behind our transition from Ubuntu to CentOS. Of-course, there is always something here and there but 99% of the cases are resolved easily and actually have nothing to do with CentOS. If time will permit we will transition all of our existing Linux boxes to CentOS 5.2. Oh, and yes, if you are looking for a solid Linux server distro – it is CentOS hands down.

We noticed that more and more hosting companies offer CentOS as their default distro and recently CentOS can claim at least 1% of all world supercomputers. The support that is offered for CentOS is abundant at this point and clearly targets the more advanced system administrators out there. All in all it seems like CentOS is maturing as a great distro for Linux server purposes.

If you are curious, we are using CentOS 5.2 64 bit by default with no software installed (at all). If needed we use the LAMP stack and the XEN virtualization software, all from the CentOS default repositories.

So, what is your experience with CentOS out there?

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