Caldera, RedHat, Slackware: Choices and Consultation Help needed

[KeithSmith]

Hi David,

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dwacks@interactcommerce.com wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I am investigating rebuilding the web servers and would like your opinions.
> The system would support Apache, PHP3/4, MySQL (access MS-SQL), Mail,
> mailing lists, and have some redundancy built in (clustering/mirroring/etc).
> If you have knowledge or have done this, I  would like some input on the
> following areas:
> 
> 1. Which O/S would be the "best" to operate this environment. We are using
> Red Hat 6.1 but find it flaky in several areas. I personally have used other
> slack ware and FreeBSD/Debian however these seem to be seen as toys and not
> commercial o/s. I am currently researching Caldera's e-server and e-desktop.
> 
>  1a. Has anyone used the Caldera system?
>  1b. What do you see as being better/worse about it?

I'm using Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 on my desktop and
am trying to build a server using Caldera's
eServer 2.3.

The thing I like about the eServer is that it
comes configured with
Apache/MySql/Perl/PHP3/Webmin and several web
related tools.  Caldera says it is more secure. 
Ftape is installed if you would like to use it. 
It comes configured for quotas and hardware-level
and software-level RAID is compiled into the
kernel.  

I don't think it comes with the DBI Perl/MySql
module so you will have to install it if you wish
to use Perl to access MySql. It is a breeze or at
least it was for me and I'm pretty new at this
stuff.

The thing I like about Caldera is that I had
little problem installing and configuring it.

I think most people do not look at Caldera as a
real distro of Linux.  I don't know because I have
limited experience with other distros of Linux.

Keith

-- 
Jesus is Lord!,
Keith Smith
520.298.2227
------------------------------
Come see what's new at:
http://www.christian-home.net/



 
> 
> 2. Once the O/S is selected, how should redundancy be set up? The goal is
> that if a system drops, another will take over. We have load balancing
> switches and used Compaq clustering solution. A secondary requirement is
> that we only want to update the data once (whether it is a SQL entry or a
> web page).  A couple of ways I thought about doing this include:
> 
> a. several Linux web servers (WS) hitting an NFS machine. The NFS server has
> all of the web sites and SQL tables. The WS would access the same data. The
> load balancing switch would deliver the incoming IP over several boxes. If a
> box is down, it would bypass it.
> 
> I am not sure how virtual hosting would like this scenario. Also, it
> introduces a single point of failure to the NFS box. We may be able to use a
> RAID system that is shared among the boxes.
> 
> b. We have one main server that is MIRRORED across several other servers.
> The load switch would monitor the connection and if it dropped, it would
> shunt to another box.
> 
> I sort of like the first solution as it gives the most flexibility.
> 
> 3. We are trying to settle on an official decision for:
> a. Mail (Sendmail or qmail)  requires pop3/ security
> b. Mailing lists (majordomo/mailman)
> c. search engine (needs to be able to handle thousands of pages and filter.
> 
> Have any of you done this? What were the results? What would you recommend?
> 
> (sorry for the length of the message. I wanted to ensure there was enough
> background to properly give you the environment).
> 
> Thank you,
> Dave
> ________________________________________________________________
> David C.Z. Wacks
> Website Manager
> Interact Commerce Corporation
> 
> (480) 368-3806    Direct Phone          8800 N. Gainey Center Drive
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> 
> (602) 340-2218    Pager
> 
> dwacks@interactcommerce.com
> 
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