Archlinux as a Production Server

timetrap · 2008-06-10 21:06:08

I have been talking with a few archers on irc about "Production" Arch based Servers.

I have been burnt more than a few times on the Alter of Stability that Debain worships. Being new to the rolling-release system I am interested in how well it fares over the long term.

I am interested in hearing from anyone that runs Arch as a server; I would REALLY be interested in any business (or government) deployed servers.

What services do you run?
What's your current uptime?
Any advice to pass on to a new Arch Admin?

(Does archlinux.org run on Arch?)

TheBodziO · 2008-06-10 23:29:32

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timetrap wrote:

I have been burnt more than a few times on the Alter of Stability that Debain worships. Being new to the rolling-release system I am interested in how well it fares over the long term.

I've only recently deployed two arch machines as routers/whatnot but been using arch on my desktop for about… 2 point something years and haven't bigger problems (desktop doesn't mean that I've had been using only strictly desktop software). Sure there were some glitches over time but they were of minor kind and quite easily solvable. Sometimes it appeared that my configs needed to be updated or something was not exactly right with the package itself. Even then solution was quite rapidly (a couple of hours to about a day) presented.

timetrap wrote:

I am interested in hearing from anyone that runs Arch as a server; I would REALLY be interested in any business (or government) deployed servers.

Unfortunately my appliances are small: local library and the a small publishing house that I work for. Still… I'm using arch in serving role in both.

timetrap wrote:

What services do you run?

Well… to many for a single machine (not beacause it won't manage to run them) . In both deployments main task for arch boxes is beeing entry point firewall/masquerade. Besides I run on then DHCP server, DNS cache/server, time server (as a realay server), ssh (they're headless units), CUPS and samba as WINS.

timetrap wrote:

What's your current uptime?

In one case about 2 days —just put it there. In the other about 3 weeks (since external power failure, before that it was 5 or 6 weeks since I brought it into place).

timetrap wrote:

Any advice to pass on to a new Arch Admin?

That's a hard one since I'm a new in this role too (I don't think I can even call mysel "admin"… "adminling" would be more appropriate ). Anyway… I think that if you plan to be more serious about administration thing I can say to you: "learn". Constantly. More about general practices and strategies that configuration of specific software. That will make you more ellastic regarding what soft you can work with.

One more thing that comes to my mind is: don't ignore problems that arise during your career. They will—that's sure. Try to deal with them yourself. If you succeed try to write down somewhere how you cope with situation (blog is a nice place for that). This way you and the community possibly will gain more knowledge. Even if you'll be unable to sort the things out there's still a way to make a "profit" from it. Observe your servers and users. Nothing means more for developing new solutions as realising that the problem or a unconvenience exists. It's the best way to optimize things.

Good luck!

Actium · 2008-06-11 19:49:31

timetrap wrote:

Being new to the rolling-release system I am interested in how well it fares over the long term.

The rolling release system was my primary reason (besides arch's way of keeping things simple aka KISS) for switching my dedicated server's os from ubuntu to arch.

timetrap wrote:

I would REALLY be interested in any business (or government) deployed servers.

I doubt any government agency would use something as "unusual" as arch.

timetrap wrote:

What services do you run?

lighttpd, mysqld, vsftpd, opensshd

timetrap wrote:

What's your current uptime?

12 days (last kernel update).

timetrap wrote:

Any advice to pass on to a new Arch Admin?

I've heard some rumors concerning the counter-productivity of PREEMPT kernels when used on server systems. I'm however not able to confirm that due to my lack of knowledge on kernel details. Further "research" into that might be required.

EDIT wrote:

I'll give compiling a custom kernel without preemption a shot. Dunno if it's gonna work out, since debugging my least-possible-module config on a dedicated server is a real mess.

Last edited by Actium (2008-06-11 21:04:24)

timetrap · 2008-06-12 11:07:47

Wow, these are two really well thought out responses. Thank you for taking the time to answer.

I still wonder, is archlinux.org actually running on archlinux?

NeOnsKuLL · 2008-07-03 14:00:05

I want too to hear some success stories about the deployment of Arch as a production server, 'cause I'm looking for some arguments to my bosses.

Thanks in advance

Last edited by NeOnsKuLL (2008-07-03 14:55:41)

SiB · 2008-07-03 15:10:47

I currently run Arch as a server back home. I don't know if my experience can be useful to you...

I am currently running a webserver (Apache with SSL and MySQL database), mailserver (Postfix with TLS, Courier-Imap with TLS), subversion repository (svn over https with webdav), FTP server (vsftpd with TLS), ssh, samba for filesharing and printer sharing, cups for printing and soon an LDAP server (openldap maybe?).

I find Arch rolling release quite stable, just check if there any issues with sensible packages before doing a pacman -Syu . My uptime is about 18 days (rebooted for last kernel update I think).

I was running this server previously for 3 years with Ubuntu. Arch give me greater flexibility than Ubuntu so that why I made the switch (dist-upgrade are a nightmare sometimes...).

As for business and government running Arch, I really don't know, I think Arch is more of a thinkerer and power users distribution rather than a full fledged enterprise server distribution. I am sure it would be quite appropriate to use Arch in certain situations, I guess it really depends on the admin taste .

Last edited by SiB (2008-07-03 16:13:05)

timetrap · 2008-07-03 15:11:26

Well I currently have Arch64 running on a Dell 2950 III, dual quad core 2.3GHz, with 32GB of RAM and two 146GB SAS drives.

I only had to make one change, and that was to the kernel parameter in grub, I added:

rootdelay=8

I am going to run some bonnie++ benchmarks in the future, but it hasn't been doing anything, just a spare server that I wanted to install.

Last edited by timetrap (2008-07-03 15:13:09)

Daenyth · 2008-07-03 15:59:26

I would definitely run arch as a production server. I've never had any relevent stability issues. The only things I've run into that wasn't PEBKAC was nvidia crashes and ndiswrapper crashes. Neither of those matter, since (I hope) you're not using your server wirelessly and for fancy graphics

On my home server I run sshd, lighttpd, mysql, php, mpd/icecast, and a few other odds and ends. I've been extremely pleased.

ould · 2008-07-03 17:55:33

Like many in this thread I too recently switched my "home media server" from Ubuntu over to Arch. I was always afraid to update Ubuntu for fear of something breaking. I am somehow more comfortable updating Arch regularly.

My home server is basically used for file sharing and a Mythtv backend.

Here's is what I run on it:

SSH
Lighttd/Apache(still working out a couple bugs with Lighttpd and MythWeb before I switch)
rTorrent (with web frontend)
SMB/NFS (need both running for different reasons)
hellanzb (with web frontend)
MythTV Frontend/backend, don't really use the frontend much on this one(2 dvb-s tuners and an ATSC tuner all capable of HD capture and playback if needed)
Mediatomb (myth's UPNP implementation doesn't seem to play well with all devices)
XBMC-SVN (just to play around with, this PC is hooked up in the theater room to the projector :-), also have PS3, HDDVD player and popcorn hour media streamer hooked up so the PC isn't used much as a display device)
MySQL with PHPmyadmin frontend
mt-daapd to share music on my network

I am sure I am forgetting some stuff. So as I said not really a "server" per se but it serves my house with media. So far everything works great.

Kevin

Daenyth · 2008-07-03 19:23:14

rtorrent has a web frontend!? AMAZING! Can you curl to it? This could be what I've been looking for...

timetrap · 2008-07-03 22:55:35

Yup it's called wtorrent.

Make a wiki guide as you go.

Dusty · 2008-07-03 23:23:59

timetrap wrote:

I still wonder, is archlinux.org actually running on archlinux?

Yes it is, using Arch packages for httpd, mysql, django, exim, etc. Current uptime is 11 days. I'm not sure what it was before that, but they did a -Syu on the system at that time and as mentioned, the kernel upgrade required a reboot.

Search the forum, this has come up before. I'm pretty sure a few devs responded that they use it in production. I know Xentac uses Arch for his business' servers at http://www.oprius.com/

Dusty

cschep · 2008-07-05 21:17:50

Not that this speaks definitively to the question, but the fact that slicehost.com recently added archlinux as one of their vps options does at least speak to the fact that people use it in important serving roles. Enough to warrant a major provider taking the time to offer it to their customers.

They seem like awesome people that run the place too, I doubt they'd shy away from an inquiring email. Maybe they'd be willing to tell you average arch uptime or something like that...

maybe they use it themselves? that'd be hard core.

Anyways, let us know how the server goes/is going.

Last edited by cschep (2008-08-12 18:08:36)

orjanp · 2008-07-12 20:35:20

I'm using Arch on a server running samba, subversion and ssh. No problems at all. My server is located behind mOnOwall firewall. And it have a uptime of 174 days. Haven't updated the kernel, just the services running on it.

I'm currently planning on setting up a webserver with Arch. But I don't know exactly when.

Orjanp...

Last edited by orjanp (2008-07-12 23:53:33)

derelict · 2008-07-14 16:04:20

I'll throw my hat into the mix...

I work for a small ISP that provides internet connectivity to 23 school districts. I have 2 Arch servers in prodution. Both are running squid and squidGuard and have a sustained throughput during the school year of about 30 Mbits/sec of network traffic.

timetrap · 2008-07-14 16:17:10

These are some really exciting deployments.

Last edited by timetrap (2009-01-03 21:19:25)

marxav · 2008-07-14 16:54:36

I have been running apache/php/mysql/postgreql/ for about three years on Arch. I maintain a web server for an community organisation. We have a public front end and an administration interface reserved to members (about 70 people log in). On that same machine. I have imap server with squirrelmail so I can look my mail wherever I am. If I have my linux laptop, I ssh in. On another machine, I keep a good var/cache/pacman/pkg which all other machines take their updates through /etc/fstab (nfs).

_AA_ · 2008-07-18 18:36:40

I'm currently replacing my openSuse server installation with Arch. It's a remote install so should be interesting. The server does the following.

* virtual mail with av and spam blocking
* web with php
* mysql for the above 2
* ftp
* instant messaging

I'll post an update once complete.

Current openSuse installation wrote:

elvira:~ # uname -a
Linux elvira 2.6.22.5-31-default #1 SMP 2007/09/21 22:29:00 UTC x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
elvira:~ # uptime
7:33pm up 174 days 18:07, 2 users, load average: 2.37, 2.31, 1.75

RedShift · 2008-07-22 08:43:15

Running a webhosting business on Arch here. Basically LAMP, for the e-mail server postfix & dovecot + my own spamfilter. I have (and will) also installed archlinux on local small to medium business servers. Running samba, postfix, dovecot.

_AA_ · 2008-07-26 16:59:54

Yeah, after many issues with the remote install and having to repeatedly boot rescue images to try and fix grub (each time reassembling the raid arrays etc...) I got pissed off and went back to openSUSE. Remote installs are always a bitch. I have however written a guide in the mean time for doing software RAID installs, although the official one is quite good anyway.

raymano · 2008-07-27 18:44:07

I think a big question to ask is how "production" is your production environment. There are mission-critical production environments and there are non-mission-critical production environments. An example of a mission-critical system is a database for a large financial trading system that may result in loss of thousands of dollars per minute if it goes down.

As much as I love Arch, and Debian, I think it would be insane to run a mission-critical, production server on either one of them. In the Linux arena, Redhat Enterprise Linux and Novell's Suse (not OpenSuse) are more geared for these types of environments.

The other issue with running Arch for a production environment is closed-source 3rd party software vendor support which you will very likely need in a production environment which uses both closed and open-source applications. A good example would be Oracle. You will not be able to get Oracle production support for Arch Linux.

The third issue to think about, when it comes to running Arch in a production environment, you become the only person to blame when a problem occurs. You can't call Redhat support and say fix my problem. You have your neck on the line so to speak.

Having said all this, I don't see a problem with running Arch in a non-mission-critical environment, such as a internal corporate wiki, if you don't mind being the person having to trouble-shoot everything in that environment.

Cheers,
Raymano

Last edited by raymano (2008-07-27 18:44:37)

timetrap · 2008-08-07 15:27:39

Thanks for creating a clear picture. I do agree that using RedHat (or SLES) in a mission-critical role is probably the most appropriate and responsible thing to do.

bluewind · 2009-01-01 10:09:14

When running a mission-critical server I'd still use Arch, but have an emergency plan. Easy one would be: Have 3 times the servers you need in different locations and of course backups. Maybe also don't use the same OS/distribution on all of them in case of someone finding a weakness (like Debian's SSH keys).

Basn · 2009-01-03 18:10:39

I'm running archlinux at work for a logbook thats made in PHP.
I only had 1 problem so far that is that Apache segfaulted on 3 boxes the sameday...
i guess it was some update that did it..
But it was an easy obstacle just made a bash script that restarts Apache.

netVare · 2009-01-03 23:19:00

Whatever distro it is i would really recommend to get the source and compile everything... unless it is SLES/RH. And yes... you should never use you real server for that, that should be some virtual machine where you compile and test the results. At least that's what i usually do on my server. If you are lazy do a package update, but not still do it on VM first!

Arch Linux

#1 2008-06-10 21:06:08

Archlinux as a Production Server

#2 2008-06-10 23:29:32

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#3 2008-06-11 19:49:31

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#4 2008-06-12 11:07:47

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#5 2008-07-03 14:00:05

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#6 2008-07-03 15:10:47

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#7 2008-07-03 15:11:26

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#8 2008-07-03 15:59:26

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#9 2008-07-03 17:55:33

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#10 2008-07-03 19:23:14

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#11 2008-07-03 22:55:35

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#12 2008-07-03 23:23:59

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#13 2008-07-05 21:17:50

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#14 2008-07-12 20:35:20

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#15 2008-07-14 16:04:20

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#16 2008-07-14 16:17:10

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#17 2008-07-14 16:54:36

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#18 2008-07-18 18:36:40

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#19 2008-07-22 08:43:15

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#20 2008-07-26 16:59:54

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#21 2008-07-27 18:44:07

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#22 2008-08-07 15:27:39

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#23 2009-01-01 10:09:14

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#24 2009-01-03 18:10:39

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

#25 2009-01-03 23:19:00

Re: Archlinux as a Production Server

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