[Cialug] SUSE Question

[Josh More]

If you are using the server in a work environment and you need 
enterprise-level reliability, you need an enterprise-level server. 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server will 
work for you.  This way you will get five years of updates for all 
supported apps - ssh, apache,vsftpd, etc.  Do not expect updates 
for unsupported apps such as ports from other OS versions. 
For example, if you need widgety-foo.rpm from SUSE Pro or 
Fedora Core, so not expect enterprise-level performance or 
security from it. 
 
That said, if you cannot afford the enterprise systems, I recommend 
CentOS.  It is a rebuild of RHEL and odds are that it will be updated 
as RHEL is.  I recommend actually parting with the money though. 
If you are making money off it, you should pay for it.  IMO. 
 



-- 
-Josh More, RHCE, CISSP, NCLP
morej at alliancetechnologies.net
515-245-7701

>>>sthiessen at passitonservices.org 08/08/05 5:31 pm >>>
Ok, just to get your advice (all included, not just Josh) ...

Should I not run SUSE for this then? Or you recommend something better
that would be more stable?

If it will save my time and effort in the future to backup my software
and reinstall something more stable, I can do that. But I am not sure
what is the best for this kind of situation.

Thanks,

Stuart

On Aug 8, 2005, at 17:25, Josh More wrote:

> 9.2 is old, 9.3 is new, you should upgrade.
> 
>Now, before you think I'm just being an ass, think for a minute about
>the
>SUSE paradigm.  SUSE Pro is an enthusist version.  It is designed to
>be upgraded every time something new comes out.  People who want
>a nice stable desktop are expected to go for Novell Linux Desktop.
>People who want a nice stable server are expected to go for SUSE
>Linux Enterprise Server.
> 
>Now that 9.3 is out, 9.2 is not given as careful attention regarding
>security updates, so stability will be more and more of a concern.
>I would *love* to be able to point you to a SUSE-like community
>supported enterprise OS, but there just isn't a CentOS for SUSE.
>In order to work within the paradigm, you need to upgrade.
> 
>As far as what could suddenly be causing problems, I generally find
>that this sort of thing is caused by a new exploit making the rounds.
>Long before you can get hacked by such a thing, you see system
>instability.  Right now, I'm seeing it with proftpd, but I have also
>recently seen it with ssh and apache.
> 
>This also ignores any issues that may come from hardware that is
>starting to flake out.
> 
>Good luck,
> 
>
>
>
>--
>-Josh More, RHCE, CISSP, NCLP
> morej at alliancetechnologies.net
> 515-245-7701
>
>>>>sthiessen at passitonservices.org 08/08/05 5:03 pm >>>
>I am running SUSE 9.2, I believe (Server's at the office and I'm at
>home off today). My colleague called me up and said that the server
>went down again.  It had been working for months with no problem and
>then all of a sudden, it is acting a little more temperamental.  The
>same is true for a client of ours who we helped set up something
>similar to what we have. It worked for months with no problem, and then
>all of a sudden, it is going down and then 20 days later, it is down
>again.
>
>Any thoughts what might be the problem?  I plan to investigate the logs
>and such, but I am off today so I don't have access to them when
>they're down (obviously). I will post what the logs say when I can get
>to them tomorrow (unless I can figure it out myself).  I'm more
>concerned with the seeming indication that it is becoming unstable.
>
>I just know enough to get things setup and configure things and keep
>them running but not enough to be an expert when things go wrong or
>need more detailed fixing.  I would like to be, but haven't gotten
>there yet. So, I thought I would check with you to see if you had
>experienced anything similar and see if you had any suggestions on
>troubleshooting tips for this kind of thing.
>
>Both are being used as fileservers both as SFTP and Samba servers. Our
>client's is also being used as an email server and a webmail server (I
>know it is better to separate the fileserving and email functions, but
>the client doesn't have the budget to separate the two functions at
>this time).
>
>One last question ... do you recommend that servers be restarted from
>time to time?  If so, how often do you recommend that happen?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Stuart
>
>
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