Need some advice from experinced admins

Sean-Der · 2010-05-12 17:34:41

Let me start by saying that I am an ArchLinux fanatic, I fully converted to Arch 100% about 2 years ago and have not looked back. (It has given me a fair share of headaches since then but its all fun).
Well... I am a senior in High School and I was recently approached by a local company as word has gotten out about some of my contracting work. (Remote Desktop solutions and VPN nothing too fancy). Well they called me about a job that would involve switching all their web facing servers (IIS) to Linux (Apache) or what ever I recommend. I have been running my own LAMP off of Arch from day one, but what is your opinion? Is Arch a viable solution? I have used everything from Debian to Gentoo to Slackware so I am not afraid to learn new stuff. I just want to get some experienced opinion on the situation.

There also is another position open for a Ruby On Rails programmer if anyone has an advice on that besides picking up A Dummies Guide to it. (I already have worked with Java and HTML so it should not be too much of a struggle, hopefully

But thanks for the advice and hopefully I can make some good headway into the IT world

Stythys · 2010-05-12 17:45:02

I run arch on my server. In general it's fine, but if you're gonna run it on production servers, you really need to know what's going on with everything, each upgrade. There have been a couple kernel updates that have messed mine up .

So yeah.. an arch server is really only as stable as it's admin is competent. Also, might wanna look into this: http://www.archserver.org

litemotiv · 2010-05-12 17:50:49

I would say you're better off using a more conservative server-oriented distro for your first task, centOs / Debian (or bsd if you're up for it)

For Rails programming, 'Agile Web Development with Rails' (third edition) is a good book to start with, there's both a paperback and an electronic version available

ataraxia · 2010-05-12 17:51:36

I recommend NOT using Arch for machines of the "enterprise" variety. Basically, if you have to ask somebody else for permission to have an outage, instead of deciding that schedule yourself, you should use an "enterprise" distro like RedHat or Centos. That will also help a lot when you're asked to install some crappy commercial, closed-source app which only supports RedHat.

Another way to phrase it:
- For YOUR server, Arch is excellent.
- For someone else's server, that you just have to run for them, Arch is risky.

Sean-Der · 2010-05-12 18:20:47

Quick question CentOS is just a community created/supported edition of Redhat. Well I am gonna d/l it and boot it in VirtualBox and play with it a little bit and see how it feels thank you very much!

pseudonomous · 2010-05-12 19:46:32

Is your question "Is CentOS just a community created/supported edition of Red Hat?"?

If so, the answer is pretty much "yes". The CentOS people take the source rpms that Red Hat publish, build the packages, remove any trademarked branding that Red Hat does, then publish the resulting packages through their repositories. They do some small tweaks to the OS like changing the desktop background and the grub-background but that's about it.

Red Hat 6 is in an open beta too, by the way, you might want to play around with it... on the other hand, there's no release timetable yet, and I don't think there's going to be a CentOS edition until after Red Hat actually releases Red Hat 6.

davidm · 2010-05-13 00:43:21

I would probably recommend CentOS also for someone else's production server which you will be paid to administer. (But would fully recommend Arch if it were your own and you were willing to keep up with things) If you are going to be responsible for maintaining it and are somewhat new then I suggest setting up a test partition on your own local machine mirroring their environment as much as possible (there may be various restrictions which might not allow exact duplication). Practice on it and learn as much as you can. Then apply that knowledge to the real thing. This way you can do your upgrades on your own local box to test them and check for problems before doing the real thing. This should help with uptime.

Last edited by davidm (2010-05-13 00:44:17)

scottman · 2010-05-13 01:21:03

I wouldnt use arch, arch is awesome for the desktop and personal use. At my work we use cent os, red hat, debian, ubuntu, all the ms versions - dont ask we are upgrading slowly, and some mac servers. I like the new ubuntu server with its auto update on security patches and it has a great package management and a community with tons of already solved problems, not that youll run into any. Debian is just as good, it is just not the hype right now. Red hat performs great, I just have a hard time sometimes finding my rpm packages but if your company would like a way to buy support then red hat might be your solution, or convince them to get the ubuntu landscape http://www.canonical.com/projects/landscape which is pretty cool...I would play with ubuntu server, cent os, and if your anti ubuntu try pure debian. Then if want try a bsd flavour, such as freebsd, they do really well as servers.

ewaller · 2010-05-13 06:44:46

Not directly on topic, but before you jump in take a close look at those web facing applications. You might want to make certain there are no dependencies on Microsoft specific solutions or on Standards that have been "Embraced and extended" by our friends in the Pacific Northwest.

Sean-Der · 2010-05-13 17:51:37

As far as dependencies on Microsoft software I am unaware at this time of any, I am doing two different jobs but they are very different in scope.

1.) Server + Site + Any Network Related (DNS and such) for an self employeed individual who basically imports goods dirt cheap then up sells them, not very ethical but it is not my place to ask questions I just need the money.

2.) A printing company needs me to learn Ruby On Rails because they want an internal interface that is easy for the employees to use.

My goal was to use Ruby On Rails for both of these solutions with CentOS. But leaving the world of minimalism and bleeding edge for CentOS is not fun at all, I miss my speed. Well thanks for all the advice and if any one here does independent contracting I would love to hear your advice I am really doing this so I have money to pay for school. (Associates Degree in Computer Science hopefully someday a Bachelors)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-05-12 17:34:41

Need some advice from experinced admins

#2 2010-05-12 17:45:02

Re: Need some advice from experinced admins

#3 2010-05-12 17:50:49

Re: Need some advice from experinced admins

#4 2010-05-12 17:51:36

Re: Need some advice from experinced admins

#5 2010-05-12 18:20:47

Re: Need some advice from experinced admins

#6 2010-05-12 19:46:32

Re: Need some advice from experinced admins

#7 2010-05-13 00:43:21

Re: Need some advice from experinced admins

#8 2010-05-13 01:21:03

Re: Need some advice from experinced admins

#9 2010-05-13 06:44:46

Re: Need some advice from experinced admins

#10 2010-05-13 17:51:37

Re: Need some advice from experinced admins

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