Arch Linux

ArchEr

Member

From: Lithuania, Vilnius

Registered: 2004-04-27

Posts: 25

ArchLinux server

Hi all,
I like archlinux very much, and since i installed it on my desktop computer, i don't need any other distro... But now i wonder how good archlinux is for server? Maybe there are some test or smth where i can compare arch with other OSes. Is it stabile? Maybe there are people who can share their experiences about archlinux server. I would be thankful for your neutral opinion. (for example in lithuania most popular servers distributions is Debian and RedHat. Can archlinux compete with these distros?)

Bobonov

Member

From: Roma - Italy

Registered: 2003-05-07

Posts: 295

Re: ArchLinux server

Most depens on what are you looking for, but generally speaking..........

I use it as server, both web and office.
At web level I think nothing is missing, o better, all the most important and secondary stuff is avail. By having all latest versions it is surely competitive against other distro.

At  office server level it is a bit different.
If you are looking for a simple intranet server it is ok.
If you are looking for a integrated atuth system, file sharing ant other  local network service there are a lot of work to do.
You have
cups for printing services
nfs/samba for file sharing
http,squid,  etc. etc. intranet web service

No auth system centralized on the server actually, o better there is NIS but it is the most insecure auth system avail today.
Actually I am working on making LDAP auth working under Archlinux, I still have work to do but no time 
LDAP is there but the pam module are missing, actually I compiled them but I didn't had time to configure server and client and make tests

ArchEr

Member

From: Lithuania, Vilnius

Registered: 2004-04-27

Posts: 25

Re: ArchLinux server

hmmm...
And how about it's stability? There wasn't  unexpected problems? I mean archlinux is young ditribution (version 0.6 ), and server has a little bit bigger workload than my desktop(which works perfect)    Debian or RedHat proved that it is suitable server's operating system... And arch?

Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

Website

Re: ArchLinux server

I think that acceptance of server load would depend more on the packages installed rather than the distro; a distro is more like a concept than a physical entitiy, in my mind.

Apache is apache, regardless, and because Arch keeps it up to date, Apache will be as stable as apache is...

The one thing that would vary much from distro to distro is the compile options in the kernel, but this is customizable.

Not that I know, I've never used Arch as a server, but if I needed a server, it would be Arch...

Dusty

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Bobonov

Member

From: Roma - Italy

Registered: 2003-05-07

Posts: 295

Re: ArchLinux server

I agree with dusty, the stability depends on package.

The only problem you can have is with a broken package.
On the other side with redhat especially you have package that hase redhadt personalized patch so that does not ensure 100% stability as well.

On another point of view Archlinux is more stable than other distro since it does not use tools for gonfiguration but the old good hand/terminal combination.

With major distro by using guis I experienced many times problems (especially with mandrake) and I is alwais hard  to solve these problem. Many times conf file are moved in non standard dirs, other time if you correct the problem by hand the gui stop to work or mess it again and sometime in a worse way. And usually the gui allow you to configure only the most common option.