I went up through setting up and configuration of Fedora server. The installation went incredibly smooth. I must admit that Sulphur is lightning fast, although I loaded my server with over 1200 files. I followed almost to the point the advice of another Howto on Forge.org who recommends to stop the following services in order to free system resources and enhance security. The guy tells us to disable the following:

• acpid
• anacron
• apmd
• autofs
• bluetooth
• cups
• firstboot
• gpm
• haldaemon
• messagebus
• mdmonitor
• hidd
• ip6tables
• kudzu
• lvm2-monitor
• netfs
• nfslock
• pcscd
• portmap
• rpcgssd
• rpcidmapd
• sendmail
• smartd
• yum-updates

I agree with most of his choices but would recommend to proceed carefully. I recall that once after I disabled cups services on one of Linux machines(because I did not intend to use the server for printing), the machine kept on generating errors until I just damned it all and enabled it back. For that reason I would not recommend for you to disable messagebus, kudzu and lvm2-monitor. Besides, some of you may be using Midnight Commander, so you will definitely need gpm. And those of you who prefer sendmail as your SMTP and iptables for security would, naturally, keep them too.

There is another suggestion. If you have time and resources don’t move your critically important stuff to the newly set up server. Give it time and let it steam for a while. Check the logs from time to time and see how it runs. This is especially true with experimental platforms like Fedora. You don’t wanna get stressed with unusual kernel panics or unexpected freezing of some services at the time when you don’t expect it.

By making sure that everything is in sync and working well, you will save your time and money and will have a hi-quality server that will run headache-free for the next several years. Among servers park of our web analytics company we still have older versions of Fedora servers running smoothly for over three years without causing us problems. We tested each platform for thirty days each before moving them to do some serious business for us.

Fedora 9 has arrived at last. Naturally, I already downloaded and burned the discs. But before I start setting and testing Fedora as a server and a desktop, I need to do my reading. As an ancient Chinese proverb says: “if you participate in the unknown game, never make a first move”. I already brushed through multiple reviews of beta and pre -release versions. But I need to read a review of somebody with reputation about the final version. This is the requirement of our web analytics company too.

There is already some interesting material in HowtoForge written by a famous volunteer Falco. There is also a new material describing setup of a Fedora 9 desktop as well. Falco’s recommended server configuration is based on the following applications: Apache web server (SSL-capable) with PHP5 and Ruby, Postfix mail server with SMTP-AUTH and TLS, BIND DNS server, Proftpd FTP server, MySQL server, Dovecot POP3/IMAP, Quota, and ISP firewall.

I am not much into Ruby, so I will get by without it. And I prefer Sendmail to Postfix, so I will go along with it. As usual, Falco does not use Iptables firewall but chooses ISPConfig, while I like Iptables and plan to use it.

There were several bugs that Falco discovered during setup, probably for the first time, especially with Network Manager that prevents to connect properly to Internet. I have encountered minor problems with Network Manager too and always disabled it, so it would not interfere with my network choices. He also disables SELinux and I wholeheartedly agree with this choice because SELinux caused me a lot of grief before. There are other more comprehensive ways to make your system secure unless one has some kind of paranoia.

I don’t recommend installing either proftpd or vsftpd unless you plan to provide web hosting services or want multiple users to access your server. You can also decide for yourself whether you want to install Webalizer or you would like to process your logs differently.

You also have a choice to install your server with or without Gnome. If before visual interface for the server created unnecessary overhead, now with all dual core and quad core processors and abundance of memory of modern computers, just indulge yourself a little. Go wild and install the GNOME.

Fedora 9 is almost here! I installed a counter which I will naturally remove as soon as Fedora 9 will be available for download. This new version is called Sulphur and promises new exciting features, like Firefox 3, Bluetooth enhancements, ext4 filesystem support.

Developers also promise to improve USB support - live USB images will persist between booting at last.  There is much more, but I will just wait and see. True, there will be bugs to clean and adjustments to make. But if you go through with customization, it is very rewarding experience. In spite of what people say about Fedora, its instability and all, this Linux version is great for experimentation. I have several Fedora servers that I customized personally, and, surprisingly, they outlived some RedHat and CentOS machines. Besides, Fedora is great for learning Linux and understanding what future holds for Linux.

As for comparison between Fedora and Ubuntu, it is hard for me to say. I have a couple of Ubuntu desktops and they are fine. But I am not much into desktops anyways. Sometimes, there are tasks that require a robust small server and customized Fedora is the way to go.

What I love about our global Linux community - is that everybody tries to help the other. Maybe, it is changing, but I never heard anything like “pay me and I will tell you why this thing is not working”.  Of course, not everybody is savvy, some folks just give you plain wrong advice, so watch it, guys.

Yet, one may see, who knows his subject really well, when you start meeting the guy and try to do what he says and it, basically, works. In the previous entry I was talking about CentOS and how good it is.  Now, there is this guy whose nickname is “falko”. I don’t know where he is from. For all I know, he is from Europe, possibly from Berlin (but I could be wrong).

For several years he helps Linux community with Howto tutorials. He has the whole series that he calls “perfect server”, where he tells how to set up a LAMP server with DNS, E-mail and FTP and put on top of it open source web hosting panel ISPConfig. I can’t agree 100 % with what he recommends and this is understandable. First of all, I don’t use ISPConfig, I avoid ProFTPd and  I am not in web hosting business, I work for web analytics company.  Yet, I must admit, that falko is pretty consistent and with a little tweaking,  you can adjust his recommendations to your needs.

So, I appreciate this guy’s help because he has been writing his stuff about perfect CentOs, Fedora and RedHat Linux server installation for several years. As soon as a new version appears, I bet there will be  new falko’s tutorials with pictures and detailed explanations. I also like that in each tutorial he tells how to set up Postfix with TLS, and that part always works, if you follow him line by line.

To make a long story short,  I recommend you to try his latest stuff, related to CentOS installation for web hosting, and if you like it you can read more of his words of wisdom spread all over  HowToForge web site.

I still like RedHat servers and Fedora, what can I say? It is like an old heartache that never really goes away. I used to install RedHat Linux on multiple boxes when it was really free, if you know what I mean. Fedora, naturally, was another story. Due to its experimental nature, it was kind of risky to set it up as a production server - too much headache if something goes wrong. But I know a lot of system administrators braver than me, who, actually, run Fedora versions as production servers.

Well, I don’t know about you, guys, but I can’t afford to pay thousands of bucks for RedHat server “support”. That is why, it was such  a relieve for me when CentOS showed up and  saved the day. For those who does not know (is there anyone, I wonder?),  CentOS is a clone of RedHat server and a damn good one.  Its name has nothing to do with cents. This is just an abbreviation for Community Enterprise Operating System.

When I downloaded for free and installed my first CentOS I could not believe my eyes - it turned out as stable as its expensive daddy RedHat.  And if fact, that is what this company aims to - to be 100% binary compatible, as RedHat. You know that when a company has great product, in most cases this simple fact guarantees company’s longevity. I don’t know, if the guys there make any decent money. All I can say is that CentOS recently turned its 4th year of existence - this proves something, doesn’t it?

CentOS is pretty consistent, they produce a new version as soon as RedHat comes out with a new server.  So, I would say, it is, basically, the same as RedHat, but better, because it is free. And a number of web hosting companies are using CentOS for the same reasons.  And my web analytics company is no exception. So, why don’t you go and try CentOS too?

I think many pros would agree that Putty is still the best free ssh client to use on Windows machines. It has  always been loyal to me and, practically, never let me down for the last ten years or so, since I’ve been working for my web analytics company. Putty comes in various versions: you can download just Putty for all your telnet and ssh needs, or you can also add to it PuttyTel, PSFTP and other clients. Putty.exe is just one file, after download you can move it right on your desktop and open directly from there.

I noticed not so long ago, though, that there were no recent updates for Putty. The last client 6.0 beta was produced for download on April 29, 2007. I really don’t know what happened, maybe developer just got tired of us or moved to some other venues. But the client is still working great. In fact, I just installed it on another new Windows XP box  and use it without any issues. Here is the link, so you can download your Putty client.