World: r3wp

I would like you to suggest me some Linux distribution:

Current situation:


I run old Fedora Core 1 linux, so it lacks on security updates. The 
server is used for few domains, it runs apache, old mySQL 3.5.x version, 
glftpd, sendmail (I am used to that). Server has 2 hads. Content 
of server is packed each week via script and copied to other disk.

Objectives:


- need some easy distro, graphical mode installation, which even 
monkey can configure, forget somo guru stuff, target hardening, etc.
- need mysql 5.x family, Apache 2. family

- adding new users/developers by some tool, e.g. webmin - ftp, apache 
domain, webmail (squirrel)

- needs to run rebol in cgi mode, eventual sqlite library compatibility 
welcomed

- kind of easy recovery - install from CD in graphical mode, copy 
configs, reboot, or even better - instasll some kind of loader, map 
to second hd, unpack backup, reboot. Maybe this could be automated?


Of course I have some sympathies already - stay with Fedora? Try 
Ubuntu server edition? Any other suggestion?

Thanks.

Obviously, Ubuntu has popular momentum, but if you want to stick 
with a Red Hat based distibution, CentOS is a good choice -- http://www.centos.org/.
According to DistroWatch, "CentOS is 100% compatible rebuild of the 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, in full compliance with Red Hat's redistribution 
requirements. CentOS is for people who need an enterprise class operating 
system stability without the cost of certification and support."

How can one ever get used to sendmail? :-)

The SME Server at contribs.org is based on Red Hat and heavily customized 
to run almost all functions you mention with particularly easy user 
management. Don't know how current is is on Apache and MySQL. As 
long as you don't need /View it's OK, because it comes without X11

I looked into CentOS, but I already downloaded Ubuntu server to give 
it a try. This time I will install including X-Windows, and also 
run webmin. My initial idea was to have a small distro, which could 
be recovered very quickly, but I think that I am fine with one day 
off ....

anyway - it would be cool to have really small thingy, which is able 
to do webserving, proxy (eventually), sendmail .... well, as for 
webserving purposes, I can imagine very small distro, with just cheyenne 
and rebol :-)

I don't care about the firewall too much, because I don't want my 
server to do it at all - that is what is router and DMZ for.

Another SME type distro is Clarkconnect (http://www.clarkconnect.com). 
It's RHEL based and has community and paid services. Nice web admin 
tool.

thanks, will investigate it ...

looks interesting. And maybe it is a distro, I once linked to here 
....

... back then, when RT was investigating distros too ....

or ... it was other way around ... it was RT who told us, what distro 
they choosed?

studied ClarkConnect - it seems like an exactl solution, when you 
want to provide ISP services, with all those antispam services included, 
unified configuration interface, backups, so you might have a good 
sleep ....

Why not Debian? IMO one of the best distros. Good packet management. 
It doesn't come to fancy but rock solid.

Because, for me - I need a server, and I want to have a good sleep! 
:-)

I have old Fedora Core 1 server, my friend moved to Prague and my 
primary hd crashed. It was difficult situation for me. There was 
a cript, which at least packed all content to secondary hw ...

the recovery was not so easy, because he navigated mi vai phone (3 
hours) and I first had to prepare partitions etc. So I look for some 
other "easy", but complete solution ...

I will try with Ubuntu initially (which is - Debian based)

but no more console - I want web based configuration, so that my 
brother can do it without me.

For server Debian is very good.

there are many good servers imo. It is not problem to actually have 
a server. But disaster recovery scenario is important for me. Because 
I have to be sure, that when I am no business trip and server crashes, 
my brother will be able to recover basic services with few phone 
calls :-)

Yes, generic servers make you do a lot of work for such things. SME 
Server and indeed ClarkConnect are custom-made for the things you 
want. SME Server has more integrated user management, but ClarkConnect 
is easier to put extra software on that is not part of the standard 
distribution

SME server - is that something particular?

what does SME stand for?

Running extra software will make backup and restoration more difficult, 
thouh

Small and Medium Enterprise

ah, thanks ....

btw - how does Syllable go? (you can answer in the syllable group)

Graham - to not spam Syllable group - http://bengross.com/smallunix.html

petr, www.rebol.net is running on clarkconnect, and mail.rebol.net 
will probably be moved to it soon.

Ah, good choice :-)

Better than the previous one, at least...

does rebol run on DSL ?

(Damn Small Linux)

Don't know why it wouldn't

hummm that might be interesting linux test setup... as it runs hosted 
and takes very little ram :-)

actually, some of my rebol apps might take more ram the the os  :-D

:-)

hopefull R3 might improve this :-)

well, we will have the flexibility to do so being able to link INTO 
rebol.  but obviously not for the beginners.

Any Samba users here?

I used YaST on Suse to setup Samba and accepted all the defaults. 
 I see groups, profiles, and users .. but when I try to login, I 
can't authenticate.

It's not setup as a PDC.  Just using windows groups I think.

Do I need to add my machine name to the users ?

Oh well, I turned it into a PDC and that seems to work now.

I use swat to setup Samba under FreeBSD. It runs on port 901 with 
the browser.

not sure on suse with yast, but i have been annoyed (very annoyed!) 
by the fact that on ubuntu, after setting things up with their ui, 
you still have to use smbpasswd to set a password to access the shared 
folder.

so... you may have to use smbpasswd to set a password.

I think I just needed to add my laptop as  a user machine .... but 
it didn't like it when I tried.  Invalid name etc.

Now I am authenticating against the server instead ie . \servername\userid 
instead of \laptop\userid