Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

[Kevin Fries]

When switching distros, there is often a thousand tiny differences to get
used to.  Some distros like CentOS are really great as servers but make
less desirable desktops.  Others like Fedora are just the opposite.   In
the Ubuntu world, they separate desktop and server versons.  It helps to
learn the philosophy behind whatever distros you use before you start using
it... things may be different, but they will then make sense.

Ubuntu is, and for the foreseeable future, will be primarily a desktop
install base.  To that end, they make their desktop for grandma.  Servers
on the other hand are to support the desktops.  This differs from the RHEL
philosophy that came more from the old Unix style.  So where RHEL is about
centralization of network resources, Ubuntu is more about support of the
desktop (kinda Microsoft like).

What that means is this... RHEL in trying to centralize resources, defaults
to setting up home directories for users.  This is because they expect you
to be having central home directories.  In a well run RedHat setup, all
your home directories are on one server, and any other server is taking
their users from LA or AD.  But Ubuntu is about the desktop.  They expect
users to keep their files locally... again think Windows.  Now the server
does not need a directory for end users... they simply need access to
resources like the mail server via sendmail, or the Web server.  No local
accounts.

Neither way is wrong, just different.  But understanding the concepts
behind the distro helps to understand when you will need to adjust your
thinking.

In Ubuntu, add the -m switch to tell it to add your home directories.  You
will also need to turn on the feature to support public_html directories.
Ubuntu is expecting you to store files locally, Cent is expecting you to
store them publically.

Make more sense now?

Kevin
On Dec 22, 2014 6:34 PM, "Keith Smith" <techlists at phpcoderusa.com> wrote:

> On 2014-12-22 15:33, James Dugger wrote:
>
>> Hey Keith. Is this for a production or development environment?
>>
>
> Production
>
> For
>
>> prod, I have typically seen no home directory for users other than
>> root (for both Debian based or RHEL).  In either distribution you can
>> explicitly assign a different home folder so you can do
>> /var/www/public_html as the accessible directory using the --home
>> option.   If you need that user to be able to ssh into the web
>> server than you can give them access by adding them into the
>> ssh_config file (I forget the details) but search Ubuntu how to for
>> this.
>>
>
> I tie the vhost and user together so there is an sftp path to upload
> content.
>
> How would you upload content if you have multiple vhosts and only one user?
>
>
>> Since you are adding DNS and email (these would typically be different
>> servers in production), this may make it more difficult to not have a
>> default separate home folder.
>>
>
> I agree they would normally be separate.  However this server is in my
> home office so everything needs to be in one box.
>
>
>> Nothing Says you have to do it this way. But in production the idea is
>> to reduce the accessible footprint of all users to the minimum needed
>> access.
>>
>>
> Makes sense.
>
> Thank you for your feedback.
>
>
>   Hi,
>>
>>  I decided to move to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS after 7 years with
>> RHEL/CentOS.  I'm very used to RHEL and am experiencing an adjustment
>> with this move.
>>
>>  With RHEL I would add a user and use that user as the docroot
>> (/home/username/public_html) for the associated vhost.  This would
>> give ssh access (after adding to the sshd_config) and sftp access.
>>
>>  When I add a user to Ubuntu it does not create a home directory.
>>
>>  When I did the install I selected LAMP,DNS, and mail servers.
>>
>>  I was not able to shell into the server and found SSH had not been
>> installed.  I was surprised.  I installed SSHD and now I can access
>> the box via the shell.
>>
>>  I'm starting to get the feeling I am approaching this build
>> incorrectly.
>>
>>  I want to build 1 box that handles LAMP+DNS+Mail
>> (Postfix+Dovecot+Spamassassin+MySql) Looks like the install did a lot
>> of the heavy lifting by instating and configuring everything.
>>
>>  So my main question is, am I going about this correctly or am I not
>> understanding the difference between Ubuntu and RHEL?
>>
>>  Thanks a bunch!!
>>
>>  Keith
>>
>>  --
>>  Keith Smith
>>  ---------------------------------------------------
>>  PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>>  To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>>  http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss [1]
>>
>>
>> Links:
>> ------
>> [1] http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------
>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>
>
> --
> Keith Smith
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.phxlinux.org/pipermail/plug-discuss/attachments/20141222/0078b979/attachment.html>