discuss: HOWTO about small&silent servers
Subject:
Re: HOWTO about small&silent servers
From:
Christian Schnobrich ####@####.####
Date:
7 May 2004 12:15:13 -0000
Message-Id: <1083932158.870.65.camel@pferd.babel>
On Fri, 2004-05-07 at 08:23, Machtelt Garrels wrote:
> If you do talk about services, there is the time to start looking into
> other TLDP docs and point to the appropriate ones where possible, but I
> agree that as far as the other parts are concerned, this can be a separate
> HOWTO.
>
I don't have a section on services (yet). But anyway, I had no plans of
giving detailed advice on how to get a certain service running, merely a
brief description of common services (1), their hardware requirements
(2) and perhaps underline a few common gotchas (3).
(1) there may be services one might like but doesn't even know about, as
the case for me with NTP. On the other hand, many people are eager to
get DHCP running although they hardly ever need it, having a static
network.
(2) most services have no special needs. But if there is one that will
require better equipment, I'd like to point it out.
(3) for example, many BIND installations query the root servers by
default. IMO you can't tell folks too often that everybody and his
little sister clogging the root servers is bad practice and the user
ought to use his ISP's nameserver(s) as forwarders. Include link to
appropriate HOWTO or other documentation.
> What I would appreciate in such a HOWTO is which distro to choose, as the
> standard ones will be overkill and maybe to heavy to run on old PCs.
Ooops.
Generally, I don't like it at all when HOWTOs are specific for a certain
distribution, or someone tries to explain why a certain distro is better
than others.
But yes, re-using old hardware may become tedious if your only means to
configure the system is through a graphical setup tool, or if the distro
insists on spilling gigabytes of applications on your disk.
Personally, I'm using Debian anyway and hence was not aware that it may
be a better choice than others when it comes to lean systems and
security. But still, there has to be a way to get it done using any
other distro -- I'd rather have a few hints on how to bypass the
official setup tools than declare certain distros unsuitable for the
task. But being a Debian-only user, I have no clue whatsoever. Could you
provide a few lines on the subject?
cu,
Schnobs
