server questions

[John Voigt]

On Thursday, May 12, 2011, Andrew Gould spake unto the assembled:

<opinion>

> Are Ubuntu or OpenSUSE easy to administer from the command line
> without breaking the installed system configuration tools (yast, etc)?

I've not used Ubuntu (yet), but certainly you can use OpenSUSE from the 
command line without many troubles. After the demise of Caldera, I changed 
to SuSE, as a lot of the Caldera engineers went to SuSE.

The only issue I've found so far is that some config files are 
automagically generated by the SuSEconfig system to update the 
/etc/sysconfig files, which, in turn generate the actual config files. If 
you update a config file manually, SuSEconfig will often save it's newly-
generated config file as a backup (since the original was edited manually), 
and you'll have to figure out what happened if something breaks. 

It's not a biggie once you can wrap your head around how it works. It's 
basically to support the pointy-clicky Yast method for basic functions, and 
saves a lot of work if you [can] edit your parameters in the right place. 

The update packages generally respect your configuration during updates 
unless something radically changes. There is a sysconfig editor available 
in Yast to take care of a lot of this up-front, but it's poorly documented.

IMHO Caldera was always good about in-place updates/upgrades. SuSE - not 
too bad, as long as you pay attention.
 
> Can anyone recommend a good tutorial on iptables?

Hopefully Dave Bandel is still around, I humble myself before his knowledge 
of this stuff - a very good resource.

> 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.

Check out fwbuilder.org - nice cross-platform firewall tool if you want a 
GUI method, and works pf, iptables, ipfw, etc. apparently Cisco stuff too.

For small(ish) networks, the Yast firewall tool isn't to bad - used it on a 
80-person network without much trouble. It all depends on the complexity of 
the network.

> I know Slackware is supposed to be good from the command line, but I'd
> like a distro that supports postgresql (packages, updates, etc).

Haven't used Slack for a very long time, so I don't know what it's like 
now. I just remember that at the time (circa 1995) it was a royal PITA to 
upgrade anything without running into incompatibilities, and there were 
always droppings left over. It may be different now.

It was always easier to start clean, copy over your homes and deal with the 
fallout. The /etc stuff was piece-by-piece.

The upside is that you definitely knew your system inside and out.

</opinion>

HTH,

JV
-- 
  _/- John Voigt - K9GBO ---|- Registered Linux User #38558 --_/
 _/- System Administrator --|- Valley Technology ------------_/
_/- jcvoigt at gmail.com ------|--Terre Haute, IN -------------_/

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