Centos or Ubuntu for servers

[carnagelan]

I am busy messing around with setting up servers and pretty much learning.
They are both popular servers. Which server is the best in terms of stability, security.

What i am going to be playing around with is squid/samba/isc-dhcp-server/iptables for a home network.

 

[chuckles_the_cnt]

both, ubuntu has heaps of reference, perhaps easier to start off with, no reason not to have a go at centos. be sure to not install any gui, cli is where it's at

 

[carnagelan]

both, ubuntu has heaps of reference, perhaps easier to start off with, no reason not to have a go at centos. be sure to not install any gui, cli is where it's at

Thanks man, i have got ubuntu server install on a spare desktop. I am not a total newbee at the terminal but in servers i am. I have centos on my laptop as my main OS because for some reason Ubuntu freezes halfway during loading but i am happy with centos.

 

[chuckles_the_cnt]

if you're exposing to the www, be sure to install/configure fail2ban. pihole is neat for home use too

 

[scud]

Thanks man, i have got ubuntu server install on a spare desktop. I am not a total newbee at the terminal but in servers i am. I have centos on my laptop as my main OS because for some reason Ubuntu freezes halfway during loading but i am happy with centos.

If you want stability rather go for something like Rocky Linux which tracks Red Hat Enterprise, that’s what I did.

Centos has had some radical change’s recently. It’s not fit for production in my opinion

https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/linux/what-is-centos

 

[Virex]

I am busy messing around with setting up servers and pretty much learning.
They are both popular servers. Which server is the best in terms of stability, security.

What i am going to be playing around with is squid/samba/isc-dhcp-server/iptables for a home network.

Rocky Linux

Rocky Linux is an open enterprise Operating System designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Enterprise Linux.

rockylinux.org

It's basically CentOS with a new name. Same devs though

 

[r00igev@@r]

Use debian bullseye non-free https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/current/amd64/iso-cd/

Its free but some of the binary components for the hardware you can use for free but the source isn't available. Thats what they mean by non-free. Stupid definition.


Load cockpit, firewalld and cockpit-machines. Cockpit also supports containers via podman.

 

[itareanlnotani]

I prefer debian - ubuntu is debian + fluff.

debian has less of that bs fluff - eg snap packages for example on ubuntu..., whereas ubuntu defaults to stuffing your system with stuff that you don't need or want.

doesn't really matter too much what you use, they're fairly similar, its usually package manager differences - apt/ yum / pacman etc, systemd - which is horrible, but unavoidable.

I'd look strongly at docker for some of your app side. squid docker can be setup in a few minutes, vs configuring system etc on your os. cleaner too.

 

[ADrunkTeddyBear]

I am busy messing around with setting up servers and pretty much learning.
They are both popular servers. Which server is the best in terms of stability, security.

What i am going to be playing around with is squid/samba/isc-dhcp-server/iptables for a home network.

You can start off like me and get a Pi and play around with ubuntu server and setup a few things like pihole and plex with radarr + sonarr + jacket and play around with docker containers and such

then get a proper home lab and run VM's, create web servers, run services etc

 

[carnagelan]

You can start off like me and get a Pi and play around with ubuntu server and setup a few things like pihole and plex with radarr + sonarr + jacket and play around with docker containers and such

then get a proper home lab and run VM's, create web servers, run services etc

I have got an old pc(1st gen i5, 8gm ram) that was laying in my garage which i setup as an Ubuntu Server(no gui) which im running Plex and works pretty well. I am also using this to study as im bust studding for the Linux+ or LPIC1 course

 

[InvisibleJim]

I have got an old pc(1st gen i5, 8gm ram) that was laying in my garage which i setup as an Ubuntu Server(no gui) which im running Plex and works pretty well. I am also using this to study as im bust studding for the Linux+ or LPIC1 course

An easy way to play with different, disposable Linux environments on that box would be to use LXD containers - they're basically like lightweight Linux VM's and there are images for many distros like Centos and Fedora so you could try out Red Hat type OS' as well. Also, like normal VM's you can break stuff and the throw away the container.

Sure you could use KVM or Virtualbox but LXD is probably already available on that box and easy to get going with your current set up.

This tutorial covers the basics but there is other stuff online if you Google

 

[r00igev@@r]

I prefer debian - ubuntu is debian + fluff.

debian has less of that bs fluff - eg snap packages for example on ubuntu..., whereas ubuntu defaults to stuffing your system with stuff that you don't need or want.

doesn't really matter too much what you use, they're fairly similar, its usually package manager differences - apt/ yum / pacman etc, systemd - which is horrible, but unavoidable.

I'd look strongly at docker for some of your app side. squid docker can be setup in a few minutes, vs configuring system etc on your os. cleaner too.

Haaibo - wash you month with soap. systemd is lekker!

 

[carnagelan]

An easy way to play with different, disposable Linux environments on that box would be to use LXD containers - they're basically like lightweight Linux VM's and there are images for many distros like Centos and Fedora so you could try out Red Hat type OS' as well. Also, like normal VM's you can break stuff and the throw away the container.

Sure you could use KVM or Virtualbox but LXD is probably already available on that box and easy to get going with your current set up.

This tutorial covers the basics but there is other stuff online if you Google

Thanks man, I am enjoying lxc. I have already got a few vms up and running. I am just not sure what will i use a container for as there are containers and virtual machines

 

[itareanlnotani]

Haaibo - wash you month with soap. systemd is lekker!

The **** it is.

/etc/init.d scripts were fine.

now its all overly verbose, painful and obnoxious. I much preferred the previous ways. yes there are some things that systemd does well, i.e. dependencies on other scripts, but imho systemd is what happens when technical specifications get priority over ease of implementation.
i.e. why take 4 or 5 lines when 40 can do the same job hoho. /s

thats whats wrong with it.

complexity means its less secure, harder to configure, and people hate it.

i am familiar enough with sys-v and systemd, and systemd just brings out the sweary in me.
We use it because its been forced on us, not because we want to.

 

[r00igev@@r]

The **** it is.

/etc/init.d scripts were fine.

now its all overly verbose, painful and obnoxious. I much preferred the previous ways. yes there are some things that systemd does well, i.e. dependencies on other scripts, but imho systemd is what happens when technical specifications get priority over ease of implementation.
i.e. why take 4 or 5 lines when 40 can do the same job hoho. /s

thats whats wrong with it.

complexity means its less secure, harder to configure, and people hate it.

i am familiar enough with sys-v and systemd, and systemd just brings out the sweary in me.
We use it because its been forced on us, not because we want to.

Bwahahahahahaha - its funny how systemd triggers people. Its bizarre.

I use it without even knowing and rarely need to customize anything. Must admit the systemd resolver is rubbish and nspawn is a hidden gem.

 

[InvisibleJim]

Thanks man, I am enjoying lxc. I have already got a few vms up and running. I am just not sure what will i use a container for as there are containers and virtual machines

Lxd containers you can think of as vm's but more efficient with resources than normal vm's which require a full OS each.

Docker containers on the other hand are intended for a different use case where the container is ephemeral and each container encapsulates a single service. That's a whole other thing to get your head around.

 

[MoHaG]

Its free but some of the binary components for the hardware you can use for free but the source isn't available. Thats what they mean by non-free. Stupid definition.

It lacks freedom, therefore "non-free"...

I prefer debian - ubuntu is debian + fluff.

debian has less of that bs fluff - eg snap packages for example on ubuntu..., whereas ubuntu defaults to stuffing your system with stuff that you don't need or want.

Yep. Debian unstable + more bugs... (and 5 years support, while Debian looked like 3 years last time I checked)

Haaibo - wash you month with soap. systemd is lekker!

/etc/init.d scripts were fine.

now its all overly verbose, painful and obnoxious. I much preferred the previous ways. yes there are some things that systemd does well, i.e. dependencies on other scripts, but imho systemd is what happens when technical specifications get priority over ease of implementation.

Bwahahahahahaha - its funny how systemd triggers people. Its bizarre.

The script based init systems was slow and made it hard to deal with dependencies. It might have made sense to adopt launchd or the Solaris SMF though. As an init system systemd does OK. The other places that it ends up intruding is the more problematic part - resolver (where hacks around the right solution - fixing nscd's caching for DNS entries...), networking, time sync, logging, etc...

 

[PPLdude]

How to spot an old head?

They post about the good ol' days of initd and how awful systemd is

 

[r00igev@@r]

How to spot an old head?

They post about the good ol' days of initd and how awful systemd is

Don't wake the dinosaurs.

All my systemd stuff runs like a well oiled sewing machine.

 

[Packet-Kollector]

Don't wake the dinosaurs.

All my systemd stuff runs like a well oiled sewing machine.

Ahh I see you hate Unix philosophy and the construct of ordered sequentially process.

All jokes asside, I hated SystemD until I didnt. Its cool now that I understand it better, and I'll agree it is faster (generally), but I do hate how its trying to take over everything.