Re: openSUSE as small bussiness server
- From: Bernd Felsche <berfel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:26:52 +0800
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?G=FCnther?= Schwarz <strap@xxxxxx> wrote:
Andreas Stieger wrote:
GÃŒnther Schwarz wrote:
Artificer wrote:
1.Is openSUSE appropriate as a server for a small company with 1 to
25 users?
As you have to ask this question: no, don't do it. You will have to
upgrade or freshly install the server every two years which is a PITA
for a complex server setup. You will also spend a lot of time upon
initial configuration which is fine for a fun project but a problem
in a professional environment.
This is why you maintain a server setup and administration log. If the
server is mission critical, give it appropriate attention.
Of course. But then the problem of short lifetime still remains.
Not a problem for a lot of companies. They like to "roll over" their
server hardware every 3 years or so anyway. There must be good
"accounting reasons" as technically; server-class hardware runs for
a decade or more if you look after it reasonably well.
If you're using SLES, then you will have an older kernel than
openSuSE; and migration to new server hardware can be hampered.
Somebody will have to back-port drivers.
Dedicated server distributions for professional use also have a
documented and tested upgrade path.
The security of operation is in the _maintenance_. Nothing prevents
a third party from providing the same level of support.
SLES support is from Novell. They too are a "third party" on Linux
systems.
As uncounted posts here and in other places show the upgrade of a
community Linux is more or less a try and error procedure.
That's because "Engineering" is a dirty word in I.T..
For some it works, others, including me, prefer to start with a
freshly formatted drive.
Why not new hardware? The old hardware can be redeployed to other
tasks; perhaps as a warm standby, or as part of a cluster.
Running the new installation on new hardware provides a complete
testing environment. Going live, after all testing has been signed
off, can then be done in a structured manner without the shrapnel
of a big-bang.
So even with a well done local documentation and possibly automated
configuration with a tool like cfengine it will be more work than
necessary.
Somebody has to do the work. There is not guarantee with SLES that
an upgrade will work out of the box. Applications and customisations
will often have to be adapted.
Most likely this additional time spent on administration
will cost more than a license fee for SLES or another server
distribution. It also adds to downtime which, depending on the
business, can be costly.
It would be very foolish to cut over to a new, untested system.
--
/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
\ / ASCII ribbon campaign | Science is the belief in
X against HTML mail | the ignorance of the experts.
/ \ and postings | -- Richard Feynman
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