On servers, what Linux distribution can I use?

As an area specialist, it is a frequently asked question. The why? The publication can become somewhat ambiguous when looking for an answer, the truth is that everyone has their own opinion and experience on the subject. You will see some of how they defend issues such as security, availability, manageability, compatibility, support, efficiency, effectiveness, among other things.

I am here to simplify your life.

Ok think for a moment resources vs cost, you find yourself in a monetary dilemma. As a specialist in the area, you could tell me that this is not your problem because you simply did not study economics, much less do you keep company accounting. But that is your first mistake, although it is not your field, you are directly affected, because a server is not economical, much less maintaining it and supporting the hardware, in addition to each mb of ram, each gb of disk, each mhz of CPU and each watt it consumes represents a cost for the company, and you have to justify it in some way.

• My first recommendation is to avoid wasting resources as much as possible, so do not install unnecessary services, and uninstall services that come by default and you will never use.

Ok now the end "efficiency", the eternal dilemma for which they constantly criticize us, that if we do something, they criticize us because we did not do it in the best way.

• My second recommendation will be and it is until today (when I publish this post)

Now Gentoo vs Debian, well I wouldn't put both of them in a ring, it would be like that paradox «What would happen if an unstoppable force collided with an immovable object? " for me Debian is that unstoppable force, and Gentoo is the immovable object.

Gentoo: You can be sure that you compiled a system to your measure, with the necessary modules to make your hardware and applications work correctly, I support these systems in topics and scenarios such as external services, static production environments, extreme security, those that every iota of resource bill. (download here). I would place a score of 4.8 on a scale of 1 al 5 (well nothing is perfect, don't judge me). And if you ask me worth it?, look The day you master this distro, create production environments and mold your ideas with this operating system to make them come true, you will return to this post to thank me.

It has its cons, first requires knowledge. (point) If I write it explicitly because there is always that laboratory nerd who will say that it is a piece of cake, no, for those who are starting it will be an arduous task, those who come from precompiled environments it will be somewhat complicated and for those who come from linux-style windows like ubuntu maybe they should think twice.

Something very common in free software that is supported or not by communities, with collaborative developments, are security patches, which are often half solutions and tend to be followed, so you will have to be compiling and consuming resources every time you go. to upgrade a package. Nor is it that Gentoo stayed in the stone age, everything is through simple commands, "emerge" handles binary packages and source (sources), but the truth is that the process behind this command is to compile and this takes time and consumes resources.

At this point I will not talk more about the subject, since a writer of this same blog made a very good article "Gentoo the truth behind the myth"

debbian: my favoriteIf so, I gave you the previous speech and now I say that this is my favorite, be patient and read on. Stability, support and compatibility are only 3 of the features you will see when you use it. Debian is in my personal opinion something like the pimp, the pimp, in this world of servers and free software, it is stable, easy to manage, easy to adapt to almost all types of existing architecture (new or obsolete), it is supported by amounts, wiki, communities, forums, companies (paid), you can support yourself from other forums and supports such as ubuntu, linux-mint, etc ... I would place a score of 4.5 on a scale of 1 al 5

Now I explained to you previously that everything has its place and its time. "It all depends". On a server, you are not going to install Debian gnome or Debian kde, NO! You are going to install net-install a micro distribution(download here), with the most essential to boot your hardware, where probably during the installation you will have to load some missing firmware through an external medium (pendrive for example), but you will be sure that you have an installation adjusted to your hardware.

Applications like web server, framworks, file server, print server, mail server, proxy's, instant messaging, firewalls, routers, and the list goes on and on, are available from here with a single apt-get or aptitude command.

EMPHASIS FROM HERE ON

Popular environments like virtualization with xen, qemu and kvm, the very popular OpenStack, among others, they are fully compatible and above all easier to configure.

Simple, right now as a server administrator, engineer or technician, you have to be at the forefront, for now this is the future "Virtualization", "Cloud", manage resources remotely and squeeze every last drop from a server, turning it into 50 or more virtual servers.

They ask you for a server with certain characteristics, disk space, ram memory, processors, operating system, etc. 5 minutes later you already created the server, in a friendly and reliable environment called Debian. Then they tell you that the application is extremely securethat you practically throw away the key to that lock once you close that door, you you come and install Gentoo on your virtual machine.

They will call you 50 years later to shut down those servers because they are still working.

Well guys and here I open another door for a future post, Virtualization. As always any question, I await your comments or messages.