Server setup hints

[Net Llama!]

On Sun, 6 Aug 2006, Collins Richey wrote:
> I know there are lots of you on the list who can do this in your
> sleep, so I would welcome some hints about a new project I've agreed
> to take part in.
>
> One of our local LUG participants is an Oracle employee and a member
> of a local not-for-profit group that currently has a hosted Windows
> IIS website with very pedestrian static Web pages. My friend would
> like to setup a replacement Linux hosted site for them. Oracle and at
> least one other big-time player is providing contributions to the
> group, and the costs of a new "server" will be provided by a third
> party.
>
> The basics of the project are:
>
> 1. Setup a Ubuntu based server with Oracle database and tools. Initial
> development will use the Oracle XE free tools, but Oracle will provide
> a licensed version (goodwill and advertising, you know), and my friend
> believes that he can persuade Canonical to cough up a Ubuntu service
> contract as well.

Other than the fact that the person running the website is an oracle 
employee, why are you using any Oracle software?

>
> 2. Initially, the server will replace the Windows IIS static pages
> with a Ubuntu server with dynamic webpages using the Oracle backend
> and some Oracle tools.

I'm not at all clear how (or why, for that matter) you're replacing static 
content with dynamic content.  What exactly is this content?

>
> 3. Long term, we would like to provide a blog and other content
> management stuff, but that's not needed for the additional cutover.
>
> This will be an interesting learning opportunity for me, since I know
> from nothing about Oracle and since I've never actually setup a
> server.We have a few local heavyweights that I can turn to, but
> Ithought this would make an interesting topic for linux-users.
>
> Here's how you can help:
>
> 1. The actual Ubuntu server setup is a no brainer. I've already put up
> a model on my home machine. 64-bit is out since the Oracle XE toolset
> is 32-bit only. The Oracel XE tools go in just fine, and I'm including
> a very minimal X and Firefox setup (not started as a rule) for local
> checkout.

Unless Oracle has changed things in the past year or so, you need X to 
install any oracle software.

>
> 2. What would be the "best" partitioning setup in terms of moderate
> performance (this will not be a barn burner site) and backup for the
> server? I'm thinking about a Raid 1 mirroring  environment to provide
> some recoverability? What do you think? How should the directories be
> split up? Problems with grub in a failover environment?

The database should be on a different partition than your webserver & its 
content.  Beyond that, the rest doesn't matter much.

> 3. We will probably be using a local Linux-friendly hardware provider,
> but it's unlikely that the guy with the checkbook will go for a
> front-line server with hardware raid controller, so this will be
> softare raid. Probably a couple of moderate size IDE or SATA drives.
> Since we don't know the cohosting requirements yet, we don't know
> whether this will be a tower or rackmount box.
>
> 4.What about Intel vs. AMD for the server? We'll be runniing 32-bit,
> but the AMD64 chips run just fine in 32-bit mode.

I doubt that its going to matter at all unless you're really using a 
significant number of Oracle features, and only thn if you're pushing alot 
of content out.

> 5.What about backup for this server? Perhaps the cohost facility will
> have some sort of a backup scheme, but what should we do if that's not
> provided. DVD burner? Tape is probably too expensive? Rsync to an
> external site?

Backing up to any static media means that you'll like need physical access 
to the system to both replace the media (DVD, tape, etc) when itsw full, 
and also to perform the restoration in the event of hardware failure.  I'd 
strongly suggest rsync (over ssh) to a separate server.

> 6. There will probably not be an external firewall, so iptables on the
> server will be used. Shorewall? Firestarter? other suggestions? I
> presume that I will make ssh key access available on a non-standard
> port to facilitate remote maintenance.
>
> 7. What about blog and cms options for the future? Has anyone analyzed
> any of these packages to determine how easy it is to convert to a
> different database backend? It's doubtful that any of the packages
> offer Oracle as a choice, so which ones have the database accesses
> properly modularized such that you can easily replace the
> MySQL/Postgres stuff with Oracle equivalents?

It would help if we had some idea of what kind of content you're planning 
to work with.

>
> 8. Any other gotchas you can think of?

Well, Oracle, really.  I've yet to see a single instance where using an 
Oracle database improved performance, added functionality, or stability. 
Oracle's only real-world strength is that it provides features that most 
other database solutions do not.  However, I'd say its highly unlikely 
that you're going to be using any of those features if you're starting off 
with static content, and somehow turning it into dynamicly generated 
pages.  Personally, I'd suggest using a solution which matches your needs, 
such as PostgreSQL, or even mysql if you dont' have anyone with some 
postgresql experience.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lonni J Friedman                        netllama at linux-sxs.org
LlamaLand				http://netllama.linux-sxs.org