Linux webserver config questions

[TurboFC3S]

I've had it with Windows and IIS, I need something that I can depend on. So I'm either going to go with Linux or BSD.

My question is what all packages should I install for a webserver, what would be some good guidelines for setting up partitions, and do you know of any comprehensive guides on the net that cover all aspects of setting up a linux webserver?

Background info, I'm obviously using vB. The server will be a high power dual cpu machine with SCSI. I can config it however I want, so think about that when recommending partitons - I can have a separte hard drive for logging and boot if I want.

I work on Solaris boxes all day at work, so I know my way around. I just want to make sure that I'm doing it right before I actually do it.

thanks,
Ryan

[TurboFC3S]

Ok, no answers yet. Let's say I build a box with 2 18gig drives mirrored in the OS, and 1 9 gig drive used totally for logging. How would you partition that? I would boot from the mirror. Where would you put the swap? On the mirror or the logging drive? I would say the mirror would be the better place to keep it. Do you normall make the swap twice the size as the physical memory?

Any tips at all would be appreciated.

[Dave#]

I think you may be a little out of your depth here.

Assuming Linux flavour and 9 gig drives the only points I would make are

a) Make sure you have at least 2 gig in the VAR partition for Mysql data and httpd logs (if required)
b) Make sure /Usr is a gig - for PHP 5 and related modules

Do not make your swap the same size as physical memory. Swap only needs to be small as a properly configured system doesn't need to swap

Finally when you say mirroring- is that actually what you mean? Or do you mean that you are going to cp -r /* every 2 minutes? There is a difference.

[TurboFC3S]

First off, why do you say I'm out of my depth? The first thing I said was that I work on Solaris boxes all day. I know plenty of Unix, I just wanted to see what everybody else is doing.

I said I would have a separate drive, probably on the 2nd SCSI channel dedicated to logging, so why would I have my httpd logs on the same partiton as the database? And what's PHP 5? The latest is 4.0.6.

By mirroring I dont mean doing a copy, I would run either RAID 0 or maybe a RAID 5 if I can afford enough discs. And I would agree with you that with 1 gig of ram, the sway definately wouldn't need to be any bigger than that.