Re: [cobalt-users] server appliance vs macosx/linux server

[Götz Lohmann <goetz.lohmann@xxxxxx>]

> hello.
> 
> we have a virtual unix server at a webhosting company at the moment and
> are thinking of switching to our own Linux or MacOS X server or to a
> server appliance such as the cobalt raq4.
> 
> therefore we would like to know what the exact advantages (and more
> important: the disadvantages!!) of a dedicated server as the cobalt raq4
> are, compared to a linux or macosx server. (at the moment our websites
> are hosted on a sun aries at the webhsoting company)
> 
> especially the following things are of high interest to us:
> 
> - possibility to host about 10-20 virtual domains

the Cobalt Servers are used to manage over 200 domains,
on a RaQ called virtual site

> - Wusage statistic software

possible - there are packages out there to install webalizer
web statistic on a RaQ or the default Cobalt Statistic Report

> - Subdomains

possible

> - SSH

possible (what else ? Never use telnet !)

> - SSL

possible - using Apache with OpenSSL

> - firewall

ups ... it's Linux, so you also got firewalls on it ... but you have to
configure it by yourself, there is no real web based tool to configure ...
so you have to SSH in you machine and change the config files by hand

> - Email Options such as Mail Forwarders, Catchall Forwarding,

possible - manageable by the web interface

> Autoresponders, more than just one real POP email addresses, WebMail(!)

autoresponder - possible for each account
more email addresses (???) - possible by using aliases
webmail - not included, but in fact that PHP is installed on a RaQ you may
use WebMail interfaces like Horde or SquirrelMail

> - the possibility to build and install additional PHP libraries (i.e.
> mysql, gd, from www.boutell.com, etc.) and other additional (unix/linux)
> softwares

yes, maybe you might install all common RedHat RPM packages - but be
aware that you might lose your warranty, cause Cobalt couldn't garranty
the compatibility to all packages

> - Macromedia Flash support

Flash Support (???) - Flash is Client Side Software to show documents hold
up in a website. There is no need for support by a server. You only need
the creation Tool like Flash 5 or Director 8. But after all if you wish to
build
it dynamic by PHP you might install the libswf modul for PHP to include
shockwave functions to it.

> - perhaps quicktime or real support (not so important yet)

no - but you might install the Apple Darwin Streaming Server 3 for quicktime
on a RedHat based Linux system what a RaQ is. But be aware that it took
a lot of space to install this and the RaQ root partition is not realy huge
...
so you have to change the path to the /home dir where you got more space.
For real Support take a look at realnetworks RealServer 8 which can also be
installed on a Linux System. But both are not common preinstalled !

Note the following: streaming video took a high bandwith a big CPU and a lot
of RAM ... so you may need about 512 MB of RAM on a RaQ to be quit in work !

take also a look at:

http://www.sec.nl/persons/ivana/Showcase/SKIN/Streamserver.html

The common advantage of the Cobalt Servers are: They are made for
housewifes ! This means ... everybody can easy create and manage default
websites and domains with this Appliance cause the common parts for
HTTP/HTTPS with ASP, Perl & PHP Scripting, FTP and SSH are preinstalled
and easy to configure without a knowledge of the config files used by
apache, sendmail, etc.
It took only minutes to get a system working with 20 domains and keep it
running ...
BUT ... thats the bad site ... the admin website is also easy to destroy by
doing uncommon things on it. Uncommon is in that way also to update the
PHP 4.0.4pl1 to 4.0.6 without wayting for a Cobalt Package and instead
try to recompile it by yourself or install a RedHat RPM file.
Cause one point is that the admin site stores all data in the config and
ALSO in a PostgreSQL database. But the information in the database is
not compared to the config files and if you crash your PostreSQL
database you crash your whole system ! The Cobalt Linux is not 100%
RedHat compatible, also aint the apache web server !

in Short:
Andvantage = easy to manage and configure default domains
and sites which use common sollutions like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Perl,
PHP and ASP !
Disadvantage = No 100% Compatibel RedHat System, much more
problems by configure it with additional things (in fact that changes
on apache, perl and postgres may crash your system), and after all
No video/keyboard/mouse interface to manage it if something goes
wrong !

Götz Lohmann

PS: If you got Linux Gurus in your firm, you may took another 19 rack
with common RedHat ... if your clerk should be able to manage the
server with zero period of vocational adjustment ... take the Cobalt !

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