best distro for a low end server
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I''ve used Slackware and Mandrake on the desktop for some time now, and am about to convert to Debian. However, I just acquired an old AMD-K6 233 mhz with 32mb ram and would like to use that as a personal http/ftp/whatever server (so almost zero traffic). What distro would be ideal for such a configuration (I won''t be running X or anything heavy duty)? Has anyone had any experience with low end servers?
I''m probably going to go Slack-9.1 minimal install, any thoughts on this?
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Dustin
just put debian on it. learn how to use apt-get, forget about using deselect or taskel (it asks you to use these during the installation). with apt-get, you can be sure you only install programs that you need. for a low end server, just make sure that you aren''t running any unnecessary programs that would hog up memory. download the woody (the current stable branch of debian).
If you''re performance craved the native compilation on Gentoo might help you. If you know enough to set the flags to help I''d go with that otherwise just use Debian.
Try Freebsd, in your case i''de try perhaps the 4.9, since you obviously don''t need the ''new tech'' version, and 4.9 is stable, very fast and secure.
quote:Original post by yves032784Can you imagine trying to install Gentoo on a 233MHz machine? It''d take a week. The only real benefit of Gentoo is portage, and Debian has apt-get which does the same thing.
gentoo all the way, you''ll squeeze maximum performance out of your box
More importantly, FreeBSD and OpenBSD both use the BSD ports tree, which portage was based on. I would recommend either of those over Linux - OpenBSD in particular is very nice to set up, and runs great on low-end sytems. FreeBSD is supposed to be faster, and OpenBSD is supposed to be more secure, but YMMV.
I am actually running a low end server like that myself. Mine is an AMD K6 200 with 96 megs of RAM. What I am running is redhat 8 minimal install with all programs that I downloaded running as well. I am running it as an http/ftp/mail server all in one and have not had any troubles with it.
I think either Slackware or Gentoo. Debian is easy to update, but I think it takes longer for debian to update to the latest and greatest packages. I recommend Gentoo over Slackware because it is easy to maintain and will squeeze the most performance out of your machine (which can be VERY important on a low end server)
For a low end server (not unlike the one I"m running) I recommend Gentoo, but be sure to download the pre-compiled packages for your architecture. That way you don't spend the time compiling everything for your machine from the start-it will save you days of time. You will have to compile stuff as it gets updated, but thats only one package here, one there, and all in the background.
This is a bit more advanced, but if you have two machines, you can use the more powerful machine to compile packages for the low-end machine. Read the man page ("man emerge") for the specifics, or try the gentoo forums, which is one of the best support forums I've seen.
If your only concern is the install process, slack may suite you better, but in the long run I think gentoo will do you better.
Cheers.
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Halfway down the trail to hell...
[edited by - scourage on January 9, 2004 4:45:20 AM]
For a low end server (not unlike the one I"m running) I recommend Gentoo, but be sure to download the pre-compiled packages for your architecture. That way you don't spend the time compiling everything for your machine from the start-it will save you days of time. You will have to compile stuff as it gets updated, but thats only one package here, one there, and all in the background.
This is a bit more advanced, but if you have two machines, you can use the more powerful machine to compile packages for the low-end machine. Read the man page ("man emerge") for the specifics, or try the gentoo forums, which is one of the best support forums I've seen.
If your only concern is the install process, slack may suite you better, but in the long run I think gentoo will do you better.
Cheers.
----------------------------------
Halfway down the trail to hell...
[edited by - scourage on January 9, 2004 4:45:20 AM]
This topic is closed to new replies.
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