Deploying server architectures (was: About server packages)

[Rick Clark]

     A. On Fri, 2007-07-27 at 09:33 +0200, carlopmart wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
>   I will try to explain my point of view about LTS Ubuntu releases,
> particularly server release.
> 
>   In previous posts I talk about system-config-cluster, but this is only
> an example.
> 
>   Another example that I believe that it is more clear: suppose that you
> need to deploy 5 IDS/IPS (snort) sensors on your corporate network with
> a centralized management. Of course, it is a production network. To
> accomplish this you would like to do it with a robust and well supported
> linux distro. IMHO only 4 distros can do it: Rhel, SuSE, Ubuntu and Debian.
> 
>   Cons about using Debian (remember I am always talking about corporate
> environments that needs full support, 24x7 with a SLA of 99,9%): it 
> isn't valid because doesn't have "official" support and there is no 
> company behind.
> 
>   Right, I have got only three options now: Rhel, SuSE and Ubuntu.
> personally I discard SuSE for a lot of reasons: upgrading procedures,
> installation is like a windows server (I can't do a minimal
> installation), etc.
> 
> Ok, I can only choose between these two options: Rhel and Ubuntu.
> But Ubuntu is automatically discarded. Why? because ...
> 
>   - Ubuntu server doesn't have a recent snort package (2.6.x). Snort 2.3
> it is very very old and vulnerable. And yes, I know: rhel doesn't have 
> snort package.
> 
Perhaps you or someone on this list would like to help by merging the
newer upstream package.



>   - Ubuntu server doesn't have graphical libraries to deploy a
> management console
> 
Ubuntu server does ship with the X.org client libraries.  What libraries
are you referring to?

>   - Ubuntu server doesn't have development packages: compilers,
> libraries, etc that I need to install snort.
> 
Ubuntu server does not install them by default, but they are available.
This is by design.  A decision was made to be secure by default, and
part of that, is not installing a development environment on a
production server environment by default.
Perhaps you are wanting specific server versions that are supported for
the length of the LTS.  As far as I know that does not exist. 

>   And exists a lot of commercial software that needs these type of 
> packages: Oracle, Informix, Anti-SPAM products, application servers, 
> etc. And Rhel have all these packages.
> 
>   With Ubuntu server I can only setup LAMP or mail servers with a 5 
> years support. With Rhel I can setup a lot of more server architectures 
> with 7 years support ...
> 
You can setup an Ubuntu server to do many different tasks, but we only
provide simplified wizards for a couple tasks.  That is something we
would like to change.  We will need the communities help to do so.  I
encourage anyone that wants a missing feature, to start working on it,
and you'll see that others will join in. 

>   Do you think really that ubuntu server is it ready for enterprise 
> market?? My personal opinion is: no, but I would like to listen opinions 
> from Ubuntu/Canonical developers or managers and yours also.
> 
It really depends on what you mean by 'enterprise'.  If you mean does
Ubuntu fit into the either the network environment or the processes and
procedures of a large multinational corporation, out of the box,  my
answer is no.  
However, Ubuntu server is running in these environments, usually due to
some customization and configuration done by system administrators.  We
need people like yourself, who are running in large enterprises, to work
with us to add the functionality necessary for Ubuntu to work well in
those environments


>   Many thanks to all and sorry for my bad english.
> 
> 
> -- 
> CL Martinez
> carlopmart {at} gmail {d0t} com
> 
> 
-- 
Rick Clark
Technical Lead, Ubuntu Server Team
email: rick.clark at ubuntu.com
irc: dendrobates on freenode
http://www.ubuntu.com