If you want a paid enterprise solution - I would go with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If you don't have any budget I would lean toward Scientific Linux as compared to CentOS. SL is much closer to Red Hat than CentOS. Plus, SL is actually funded by a number of large entities - like Fermi and NASA. Good luck. On 03/23/2013 04:44 PM, Jeremy MountainJohnson wrote: > Howdy, > > I'm in need of a Linux server on a separate, primarily offline network > I have set up at a job. I was initially leaning toward Arch Linux, my > distro of many years I use for my workstations and some home servers. > BUT, I don't want to spend loads of time updating rolling updates, > monitoring security vulns and bugs, and I don't really have time to > build a server up from scratch either (relinquishing controlling / > minimalist nature to allow time saving in this case). Ideally SE or > security centric values are important. > > I also need it to bring up a wireless interface (in addition to the > wired network) for Internet connectivity on occasion for updating NTP > and grabbing security updates and AV definitions. I can BASH script > and run a cron job for everything, however the wifi requires an Accept > button be pushed on a web page before access is granted every time a > connection is made to it. It's a Cisco based access point. I did a > quick search on Google and didn't find any kind of automation for > this. Worst case scenario I could do a Python script to make this > automated (hopefully, page is SSL) and kick it off from my cron job > BASH script if no one has any suggestions. On a separate note, I'll be > securing the wifi transmission as well. > > The server will run services for a gigabit switch comprised of mostly > Windows 7 workstations with one Linux workstation (total of 8 ~ 10 > computers). It will service anywhere from 0 - 4 users simultaneously > and run backups and database back-end for an application every so > often. > > I plan to set up an OS disk and separate software RAID0 for storage. > > Services to provide: > * NTP > * DNS > * SMART (monitoring disks) / mdadm (RAID mgm, monitoring) > * Syslog (for intake of switch logs) > * postgres > * SMTP server (sending alerts, notifications) > * File server (Samba, NFS) > * Comodo AV, some other home brew scripts for malware > * SSH > * X, lightweight but ready to use WM/DE like LXDE or XFCE- server will > be headless after setup > * Firewall service covering both intermittent wifi and wired networks > > Long term I may add: > * HTTP (for webmin, monitorix, log reporting) > * Room to be flexible for future needs... > > I've worked very little with CentOS at my last job awhile back, > however am leaning toward it as I recall liking it. Are there other > open source enterprise server distros people recommend for what I'm > trying to accomplish? If so, how come? If I go with CentOS or whatever > people recommend, are updates obtainable via command line and > automation friendly (for the script)? Will I need to re-install with > each major version? Are there gui front ends for most daemons or at > least managing daemons (I'm used to text files and systemd, but want > added convenience / time savings)? > > I'm open to poking around with LiveCDs / VMs for bit, the project > isn't quick turn around or anything. Thanks for any suggestions! > > -- > Jeremy MountainJohnson > Jeremy.MountainJohnson at gmail.com > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >