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Hope this is the right place to ask the question.
Can anyone advise which 'flavour' of linux might be suited to a standalone, internet facing web server.
The machine need doing nothing except serve html/php and maybe have some kind of DB on it (although the DB may possibly be migrated to a dedicated server).
I don't want a distro argument, I just am not familiar with the current crop of distributions and unsure which might best fit the need.
if you want Linux and not BSD (BSD has a faster tcp/ip stack last time I checked) then your question is going to be about support and hardware reqs.
To address the best optimizted distro for specific application, Gentoo can be very custimized and small to fit your specific needs.
My guess is you are going to run some type of business on the server if you are thinking about moving a db to a dedicated server. If it is not for a business and just causual use, pick a distro and install it. You learn a lot of installing different instro.
there are two things need be to addressed .
1. support. You have to select a distro of linux that your hardware vendor supports. last thing you want is to call in with a hardware vendor with software they don't support.
2. you are going to be running apache/php which is pretty standard for linux. Do you need MySQL/Oracle/PostGRE in standalone or cluster mode and do you want support from either of the vendors. Oracle support and install is a lot easier of distro that they have approved.
Moved To Linux Development
In my opinion, I would never put Gentoo on a server, simply because when updates are required it's a huge hassle. I think that Debian or a Debian-based distro would be your best bet -- it may not have the latest and greatest versions of everything, but it is secure, stable, and has an easy to use package system to keep up with any new security fixes.
Virtually any Redhat distro since 9.0 would be very good straight out of the box. Stick apache, mysql and PHP on it and off you go. 2 hours work tops.
If you are a masochist then take a look at Damn Small Linux, that has a web server called "Boa" on it which is ultra-low overhead but its only single-threaded. Fine for 10 users or less concurrently.
Thanks, so food for thought in all this.
I don't want to 'learn' anything - I want to set it up and leave it in a corner somewhere to get on with its job :D - which won't be anything fancy - just running some php scripts and a bit of db work - no clustering or anything like that.
Not interested in any kind of support either - this is non mission critical.
From what I have read here, and elsewhere currently thinking I will go with BSD or Debian.
Always fancied having a play with Damn Small Linux but never had the time to do so :(
I'm currently running a webserver on Ubuntu Server Edition. It has the great package management inherited from debian, along with more frequent updates (6 months, as opposed to 2-3 years). It also has a LAMP install option to automatically install Apache, MySQL, and PHP which saves a lot of time in setting up a webserver.
If you're running an internet-facing server, don't forget to configure the firewall with something like Shorewall and install the handy fail2ban to keep out unwanted people. Both should be available from any good distro's package repository.
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Originally Posted by tr333
Very good advice. fail2ban is one of the first things I install on any computer that's going to have ssh available, simply to deal with all the brute force attempts that are going to happen.
Thanks tr333.
I wish I had known about fail2ban a few months ago - I needed something exactly like that but couldn't find anything that worked with shorewall.