server questions

[Andrew Gould]

On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 10:37 AM, Yu Meng Chong <chongym at cymulacrum.net> wrote:
>
> ----- "Andrew Gould" <andrewlylegould at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Are Ubuntu or OpenSUSE easy to administer from the command line
>> without breaking the installed system configuration tools (yast,
>> etc)?
>>
>> Can anyone recommend a good tutorial on iptables?
>>
>> Background:  I used to run a FreeBSD server with ssh and https
>> exposed
>> to the internet.  I used pf for firewalling and secure web for forums
>> and webdav.  I'd like have a similar setup again.  I'm purchased a
>> zotac zbox id40 (atom d525 dual core, upgraded to 4gb ram) for lower
>> energy use.  The wireless adapter, ralink 2860, works in OpenSUSE
>> 11.3
>> and 11.4 but not FreeBSD.
>
>
> Hi Andrew!
>
> Fascinating!
>
> I'm thinking of building a AMD Zacate server because it uses passive
> cooling, but I am so afraid of the performance (or lack thereof)! I
> once setup a Celeron server for basic print and file sharing and the
> performance was abysmal. Took forever to boot and seemed to be
> "thrashing" 99% of the time, though there was 1GB RAM in it. This was
> some years ago when 1GB was a big deal.
>
> Anyway, back to your question. I am using OpenSUSE right now, and I
> have to say that so far, the experience has been superb! The packages
> I have used seem much better engineered compared with CentOS/RHEL
> (more thought put into them, so better suited to task), the mailing
> list is quite vigorous and 11.4 has some nice eye candy and performance
> enhancements. The only downside to OpenSUSE is that there is a lot
> less documentation for it compared to RHEL or Ubuntu. This can be
> quite frustrating when all you want is a quick solution.
>
> I don't know enough about iptables to say if it is easier to manage on
> OpenSUSE. I use Yast for this sort of thing and it is quite effective
> for most things (even works over SSH), but my understanding of
> firewalls and security are very basic, so I may not be the best person
> to ask about this.
>
> Anyway, let us know how the Zotac box performs! I heard some awful
> stuff about Intel Atoms, and that the cooling still requires a CPU
> fan. But I am very curious to know if it is capable enough to be a
> server of any kind!
>
> Regards,
> pascal chong
>

I just read that YAST has an ncurses interface for terminal use!