Debian as first server

Sone · 25 Feb 2008 at 21:17

need to start my first virtual server, currently debian + VMWare server is my first choice.

Machine is an old HP DL380 G3, 2.4ghz Xeon, 2.5gb ram, 2 x 36gb 3 x 73gb. Am i making a big mistake or is debian okay for thid?

(i have admin'd a Unix server for 2 years but my first real dip into linux)

afraser2k · 25 Feb 2008 at 21:21

Check out some of the articles on http://www.howtoforge.com/ for using Debian as a server.

My first taste of Linux was with Debian and I found that as long as you read the documentation you should be fine, especially with apt-get for installing software.

GarethDW · 25 Feb 2008 at 21:23

Debian is a great choice, imo. It's still one of my favourite distros. Not bleeding edge, but rock solid, which is a positive aspect for a server.

bigredshark · 25 Feb 2008 at 21:26

What you want is Arch! Honest!

My experience is it's easily the best choice for personal server applications (ie. I wouldn't put it on a name server at work, it's far too bleeding edge for that). I was very committed to redhat distributions previously and had tried debian but didn't get on with it, Arch is a breath of fresh air though, lightweight and very flexible, it's everything you'd want in a server.

Sone · 25 Feb 2008 at 21:36

my first linux was corel linux many moons ago.

Since then ran fedora and ubuntu briefly but both seemed to have far too much handholding to gain any decent knolwedege.

Used to run nslu2 as a home server so i learned to love apt-get

kiwi · 27 Feb 2008 at 21:24

Debian is spot on for pretty much any server use IMO. People forget that there's more than just 'stable' available, if that's a bit too old, there's always 'unstable' and 'testing' to play with.

bigredshark · 27 Feb 2008 at 22:07

kiwi said:
Debian is spot on for pretty much any server use IMO. People forget that there's more than just 'stable' available, if that's a bit too old, there's always 'unstable' and 'testing' to play with.

Unless, as I've said elsewhere, you're actually running a critical business on it and want some support from the people developing it.

kiwi · 27 Feb 2008 at 22:10

bigredshark said:
Unless, as I've said elsewhere, you're actually running a critical business on it and want some support from the people developing it.

I don't disagree, however this thread is about personal server usage which was what my answer was more aimed at.

celliott · 27 Feb 2008 at 22:41

Debian is a very good choice for a server, nice and spable and although it's down to preference I do prefet apt-get and .deb packages rather than Yum and RPMs on Redhat/CentOS.

uk_viper · 28 Feb 2008 at 10:30

Debian is very good as a server, however you could choose to use CentoS/Fedora and install openvz, but i guess depends on what os your planning on installing within vmware

whitecrook · 28 Feb 2008 at 23:16

I still like Debian. Their policy of docs with all the packages is a good one.

yawa · 29 Feb 2008 at 09:46

Red Hat/Centos isnt actually down as a supported OS to host vmware so you might have a few issues getting it up.

If you want it specially to run as a vmware host id use opensuse/sles as there are a lot of people on the vmware forums including myself who use it and have not had any problems.

bigredshark · 29 Feb 2008 at 10:30

yawa said:
Red Hat/Centos isnt actually down as a supported OS to host vmware so you might have a few issues getting it up.

If you want it specially to run as a vmware host id use opensuse/sles as there are a lot of people on the vmware forums including myself who use it and have not had any problems.

Zero problems getting vmware working on redhat here. Not that it matters, if you're talking a supported business environment then you should be running ESX really.

Mobius 1 · 29 Feb 2008 at 11:27

but isnt debian a massive 4 DVD download? would i need to download them all to give it a go?

.walls · 29 Feb 2008 at 12:25

bigredshark said:
Zero problems getting vmware working on redhat here. Not that it matters, if you're talking a supported business environment then you should be running ESX really.

I'd have to disagree - ESX is too much for small businesses (less than 50 employees) and too much for some medium sized businesses (50-249). Really, it's an enterprise solution.

-Tauren- said:
but isnt debian a massive 4 DVD download? would i need to download them all to give it a go?

Nah - just get the net installer.

The DVDs are basically an (out dated) offline repository.

bigredshark · 29 Feb 2008 at 12:36

.walls said:
I'd have to disagree - ESX is too much for small businesses (less than 50 employees) and too much for some medium sized businesses (50-249). Really, it's an enterprise solution.

Well it depends what you're willing to pay for IT. For a company with 50 users, if they need virtualisation then they should be prepared to pay for ESX. If you're under that then you're likely to be a bit better off in terms of TCO buying individual servers.

I wasn't thinking of business that small to be honest, how critical are their IT systems to be honest? My point was anyway, that if you're app is *really* important enough to worry about support seriously then you should be running ESX.