On a dedicated server for hosting. Which OS would best handle Quad Xeon? Freebsd or Linux?

Of course Linux, unless you wait for FreeBSD version 5 that will support better SMP. Go with 7.2 RedHat or the latest Suse - Linux is definately the best choice for multiple CPU machines.

http://www.redhat.com/
http://www.suse.com

or use debian etc (even custom linux)! with the latest kernel :)

Hi!
Both FreeBSD and Linux are wonderful choices...
BTW from what I know FreeBSD already has SMP support... 5.0 is going to be a major improvement... More details..
http://www.freebsd.org/smp/index.html

Anyway, I'm love both OSes so can't give much of an opinion. Our servers here in our office are FreeBSD.. Basically because they go through a lot of load and we found out that it performs better than Linux on that aspect (I agree that teaking can make linux just as cool and secure as BSD for servers too).....
All the other Desktop computers here are Redhat 7.2 (mine has KDE3.0 as the desktop... ;) )
I personally like Redhat as a cool Desktop solution and BSD as a server....

Have a great day :)

Regards
Amar

RedHat (7.3) but you might need the Server Version. But having the cost of a quad in mind that should not be such an issue I guess.

This falls into the "if you have to ask, don't" category. Unless you're doing something I don't know about, there is no reason for you to be getting a quad processor xeon system.

Originally posted by bobcares


....
(I agree that teaking can make linux just as cool and secure as BSD for servers too).....

....



Oh yeah? Like what sort of tweaking? Rewriting the entire kernel and all the protocols? We're talking about a different platform, it's built differently and the way it's built will make it more robust and secure. How and what could you possibly do to make it as secure, unless you plan to do a lot of kernel hacking and then some?

Originally posted by Tim_Greer
How and what could you possibly do to make it as secure


root@porn [~]# rm -Rf /*
Insert FreeBSD CD and restart the computer... :D

LOL

Originally posted by Jag
LOL

Now, what are you laughing at, what I said, or my server name?? :D


BTW: That is one of my server's name

What you said, not the server name.

Hi!
It is just a choice....
I would never say that Linux is bad. I have seen many linux servers that are very stable and secure (including those configured by you.... ) ...
Nor do I say that FreeBSD is bad. I just wanted to say that both if configured properly can be wonderful internet servers....
Have a great day :)

Regards
Amar

Originally posted by cperciva
This falls into the "if you have to ask, don't" category. Unless you're doing something I don't know about, there is no reason for you to be getting a quad processor xeon system.

I already have a IBM Netfinity 7000 M10 in my cabinet that I want to do webhosting with. I want to fill it up with eide drives and 2 gigs of ram to start with. If it starts to swap or slow down I will add even more ram or cpus. I just want to start off with the right OS than find out latter that I should have installed something else.


http://www.compu-terra.com/specs.cgi?HDMXT6054+tmp/product

You guys like WD or Maxtor better? I read IBM harddrives have many problems.

You spend all that money on the CPU and RAM, then fill the thing with EIDE drives? :bawling:

Originally posted by Verteron
You spend all that money on the CPU and RAM, then fill the thing with EIDE drives? :bawling:

As long as there is no swaping, large data base or many scripts it should be fine. More ram means less disk access so speed of harddrive won't matter much right? I want a raid 5 setup.

Woah this is cool http://www.1u-raid5.net/Differences/
http://www.acnc.com/04_01_00.html

MEH... it all depends. SCSI tends to have far lower processor utlisation, but true, if you have a lot of RAM then it might not matter. I'm comparitively new to the web server front, but I do know a lot about file servers where IDE would be suicide ;)

Quad Xeon + IDE Hard Drive = Bad Idea. Why save few $$ when you are spending big money on Xeon !!!! :confused: :eek:

I got a pretty good deal for the machine. I haven't totally decided on how I am going to setup the harddrives. The raid controller Promise SX6000 controller got a good review.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/storage/raid-roundup-2/

RAID 5 (3 Drives)+ RAID 5 (3 Drives for Backup)

Get 6 harddrives and raid 5 3 or them and raid 5 the other 3 for rsyncing nightly? This possible? I hope I understand the raid theory correctly.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10315373

Western Digital has a new 100gig IDE drive with 8mb cache , they claim its outperforms a 15k rpm scsi drive due to thelarge onboard cahce. You might want to look into those.

Originally posted by bobcares
Hi!
It is just a choice....
I would never say that Linux is bad. I have seen many linux servers that are very stable and secure (including those configured by you.... ) ...
Nor do I say that FreeBSD is bad. I just wanted to say that both if configured properly can be wonderful internet servers....
Have a great day :)

Regards
Amar

Of course. I had just meant that the architecture of Linux can't be as secure or robust as FreeBSD, is all -- well, not without a lot of changes and it'd be so many that it'd not be Linux anymore. However, indeed Linux can be very secure and that's all that matters is that it can be secure enough.

PS: I'd definitely go for SCSI if you can afford it -- and you can (or should be able to if you can get a Quad Xeon). It's not just the speed that makes SCSI better, but the quality -- and if you daisey-chain them, etc. SCSI are meant to better utilize data access across the drives better too.

If you plan on using RAID5 as you mentioned, then you should definitely go with SCSI drives.

Hi Guys,
A bit of topic... But cool...
http://www.redhat.com/advice/ask_shadowman.html

Have a great day :)

Regards
Amar

Originally posted by bobcares
Hi Guys,
A bit of topic... But cool...
http://www.redhat.com/advice/ask_shadowman.html

Have a great day :)

Regards
Amar

Boy, they'll let anyone write articles.

"When Shadowman configured that box, Shadowman did several things right:

He practiced good control of sensitive passwords
He shut down services that were not needed

However, Shadowman really blew it in other areas:

He left FTP (a very easy service to misconfigure) open

He didn't bother with firewall rules restricting access to active services, leaving things such as ssh open to every IP address in the world

He felt that the internal network was 100% trustworthy He thought that security was something you worry about once and never again, once you "get it right"

He installed an older version of Red Hat Linux, and neglected to apply security-related updates as they became available

So Shadowman was an idiot."

By looking at this guy's answers, I'm not surprised this happened to him. I guess it's good he could notice an obvious root kit was installed <insert rolling eyes avatar>. I guess knowing the named of popular tools makes you a security expert these days. A good reason to use Slackware, if you ask me, if guys like him are consulting the RedHat people.

Shadowman says:
Shadowman has a confession to make -- he also used Red Hat Linux as a masquerading firewall. And when he first put that system up on the Shadow Lair's DSL connection, said system was hacked within 24 hours.

Does that mean that Red Hat Linux is incapable of securely connecting a private network to the Internet?



I think we can all answer that :D

"Stealth Mode! There is NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that a port (or even any computer) exists at this IP address!"

Let me guess, he learned that from black ice or grc.com :D

Amar, thanks for the laugh :D

I would like to point out that linux kernel is better than freebsd with multiple CPU at this time. I like FreeBSD - its better at IO, but Linux is getting close... anyway, FreeBSD 5.0 will make a significant performance boost for SMP servers.

From freebsd.org
"Work in-progress includes support for fine-grained SMP locking in kernel, allowing higher performance on multi-processor machines, support for Scheduler Activations, allowing parallelism in threaded programs, filesystem snapshots, fsck-free booting, network optimizations such as zero-copy sockets and event-driven socket IO, ACPI support, and advanced security features such as Mandatory Access Control."

I have a Quad Xeon 550Mhz with 4GB RAM and SCSI, but i cant get REDHAT 7.1 to work with the NIC card, It just gives errors. I tried Win2K and it works fine ...

Is there any known problems, maybe the kernel?

I havent had time to play with it, so if anyone who has experience comments are welcomed ....

It depends if the nic is supported, does it have proper drivers??

What kind of NIC is it??

Compaq NC3131 Fast Ethernet NIC
Hardware Number : 009542-003 ( http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=009542-003&btnG=Google+Search )

I have the latest drivers too, but i think maybe its the kernel .. I'll give that a try

ok, here you go

http://wwss1pro.compaq.com/support/reference_library/viewdocument.asp?source=EU011031_CW01.xml&dt=3


7.2 drivers, rather new
http://www.compaq.com/support/files/networking/nics/Compaq_NC3131_Fast_Ethernet_NICs_Linux.html


enjoY!