To what extent RHEL Deployment Guide can be used for ubuntu?

[Peng Yu]

Hi,

I don't find a deployment guide in ubuntu as complete as the following
one from RHEL.
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-5-manual/Deployment_Guide-en-US/index.html

Although I do see man pages, but I'd prefer a complete guide rather
than scattered manuals. Ubuntu has a manual http://ubuntu-manual.org/,
but for example missing autofs (I know this is available in the man
page, but I prefer a complete manual, as I can always check a man page
if I want), which is available from RHEL deployment guide.

Note that I'm not complaining ubuntu doesn't provide a complete
manual. Rather I want to understand what the difference is between
RHEL and ubuntu, so that I can understand to what extent I can use
RHEL deployment guide for ubuntu.

In particular, I want to set a cluster of 4 servers (maybe expanded
later). I know that RHEL are commonly used for servers (maybe that is
why it has a more complete guide?). My understanding is that ubuntu
should have whatever packages available in RHEL. But why RHEL is
popular for servers (or maybe I'm wrong at this point)?

In case that there is a disadvantage to set the servers use ubuntu,
maybe I should just use RHEL without worrying the document
completeness?

-- 
Regards,
Peng