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19990527: OS advice

>From: Anthony Rockwood - MSCD Meteorology <address@hidden>
>Organization: Metropolitan State College of Denver
>Keywords: 199905261445.IAA05071 Operating systems

Hi Tony-

>Thought I'd bring you up to date on my doings down here and also ask for
>some advice on operating systems.
>
>My hardware has been ordered and should be here in a few weeks.  I settled
>on:
>
>1 - PIII-500mhz, 512 ram, 16mb video ram, (2)9Gb scsi drives, 
>    21" (.22) monitor, zip drive, fast NIC
>
>4 - PIII-450mhz, 256 ram, 16mb video ram, 10 Gb IDE drive, 21" monitor,
>    fast NIC
>
>1 - PII-333mhz laptop, 128 ram, 8mb video ram, NIC

Gee, too bad you couldn't get any muscle machines. ;-)  Amazing how
far a few dollars will go these days.

>Now, I'm trying to settle on an operating system.  My choices are Solaris
>(2.6 or 7) or Red Hat Linux (5.2 or 6), and I'd really like to use only
>one, rather than two as I'm doing now.  I'll be putting it on the laptop
>also, but if possible, I'd like to do a dual boot with the pre-installed
>Windows 98.
>
>I don't really have a preference, although I think I'm a little more
>comfortable with Linux, especially on the laptop.  I think the various
>support books and references for Red Hat are a little more readable for
>the novice.  

Well, recently there was a problem noticed using Linux for LDMs when
the queue is very large.  You aren't in that boat yet, but it is still
a potential problem.  

>I know you've mentioned that Solaris is more secure than Linux - can you
>elaborate on this, and would it be the deciding factor ?

Well, since Linux is an open source operating system, there are more
people (read hackers) that can delve in and find security holes.  With
Solaris, the source code is not open, so should be more secure. In
either case, you should make it a priority to keep up on security patches
and clamping your system down from potential attacks.  We can help you
with some easy steps to take on the latter but you should be more
aware of what you need to do to keep up with patches for your systems - 
more than you are now.

>Is there a preference when it comes to installing/upgrading/running the
>Unidata packages ?

Not really.  For Solaris, there is more upfront work to get things like
Perl, gcc, etc which come bundled with Linux.  But once you have those,
it is no different in setting up the systems.

You might want to consider having the McIDAS and GEMPAK accounts home 
directory located on the server system so you can build one set
of binaries for your site and use that for all machines.  That will
save you from having to build it or copy the distribution to each machine
the Solaris version and the

>It seems that the network administration is fairly straightforward in
>Linux, though I have to admit, I haven't done it in Solaris.

Well, one thing about Solaris is that you haven't had to touch it really
since you installed it.  So, your biggest headache in both cases is going
to be getting the system set up and secure, then it should just run
like a top.

>I went ahead an got a copy of Solaris 7 (the almost-free distribution from
>Sun) just in case you think it's the way to go.  And if Red Hat becomes
>the choice, should it be version 6 ? 

I would suggest you keep the same setup you have now.  Use Solaris for
your ingester/data/file server and use Linux for your other workstations
and laptop.  Solaris has better support for NFS, security and the LDM.
Since you already have a copy of Solaris 7, you might as well use it.
You should use the latest versions of each, so that would mean Solaris 7
and Red Hat Linux 6.0.

In either case, before making a decision, make sure all the hardware
works with whichever operating system you choose.  Solaris doesn't
support the ZIP drive out of the box, but you could always have that
in one of the Linux machines and save stuff from there using NFS
mounts if need be.

>There's no rush on your response - I'm just trying to make the decision
>before the hardware comes in so I can get things in place ahead of time.
>I'm sure you guys have discussed these issues, so I'll take any advice you
>think would be best for me.

I'm not sure if this answers your questions, but I think the real answer
is to do what you feel most comfortable with.  I think you should use
Linux for your workstations and laptop since you are used to this, but
for the server, you'll have to decide given the info above.

Don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions.

Don