[brlug-general] Slicehost?

[Daniel Webb]

On Thu, Jun 28, 2007 at 04:00:14PM -0500, Joe Fruchey wrote:

> Getting excited about server admin... does that make me a geek? =P

Yes.  Welcome to the club.

Here are the servers/services I run on my slice:

HTTP:	Apache2 of course
HTTP proxy: Privoxy
Website templating: simple custom system in PHP
Website photo gallery:  Gallery (should probably change this to something else;
			Gallery has had way too many exploits)
DNS:    Bind 9
SMTP:	Postfix (there was a long email tread on the Boulder LUG that
		convinced me to switch from Exim to Postfix)
Spam blocking: combination of Amavis-new and Spamassassin with Razor
	(long thread on Boulder LUG on why I think that is best for home setup)
VPN:    OpenVPN
RCS:    Subversion (keep your important documents and files in a RCS!)
Printing:  CUPS
IMAP:	Dovecot (I think it's easier to setup and understand than Courier)
Webmail: IlohaMail (switched to this from Squirrelmail)
Database: Postgres (any database that doesn't consider transactions an
			essential feature is really just a filesystem)
VNC:    RealVNC 4 (the GPL version, switched to this from TightVNC because it
		is better)
Backups:  rdiff-backup (actually not running on my slice but on my home
	machine)

What else while I'm giving unsolicited advice...

Ratpoison with a heavily-modified config is my window manager.
Mutt is the best email client ever.
Vim is the best editor ever.
The Thinkpad 600E was the best laptop ever made.  
The HP Laserjet 3&4 were the best black and white printers ever made.
Microsoft Windows and Office are still extremely flakey (no joke: I
blue-screened Windows XP once by trying to login, and I can crash IE or Office
on any computer by simply using them normally for a few minutes.  I know most
people don't have such experience but I must be "special").

I tend to be opinionated about software, although if you have a good argument
I will change my opinion (like I did with Postfix, Dovecot, RealVNC and
IlohaMail).  I highly value stability and robustness.  Of the packages I use
above only Apache, Bind, Postfix, OpenVPN, and Postgres meet my standards as
something I would call stable and robust.

Daniel