How do you choose a server Operating System?

Question

What are criteria that you should be aware for choosing an operating system for a specified server (apart the fact that software needed is only available on 1 platform) ?

For example, if I'm building an Oracle Database server, how do I choose between Linux (and which Linux) or Windows ?

For a LAMP stack ?

For storage shares ?

etc...

Answer 1

It depends on the server and what it will be used for. If the server will house a particular software package, such as Oracle, ask the vendor what they recommend. What will be easiest for them to support? What OS has the best benchmarks for the software in your use case? Do you have staff who can work with that OS?

For generic servers, go with whatever your staff is most comfortable supporting. For basic web servers, if your staff knows their way around FreeBSD, use that. If they prefer CentOS, go with it. This will also somewhat depend on the software (you're probably not going to deploy Linux for an ASP.Net web site).

If there is a particular application well suited for a particular OS, such as a firewall, consider an OS with a reputation in that area. OpenBSD has a very good reputation for security, so they are an obvious choice to base firewalls on.

Answer 2

The software that you will install for the most part tell you what the best OS is, for example PHP, Apache, even Oracle I think are much better suited for Linux

for LAMP, Linux is a requisite for storage I don't think it matters as much, I would say Linux, but I would just go with whatever infrastructure you have in place, if you have Linux servers, then Linux

Answer 3

It usually depends on:

• What your company generally uses (and will therefore have defined 'builds' for)
• The skill-set within the company
• If the server is going to be in a DMZ or not
• Cost

Everything you mentioned will run on any OS. There may be some (usually very specific) advantages for a particular OS, but usually only at an enterprise level.

Answer 4

It depends on what the software you need to run on it supports. That's the first thing to consider. After that, it depends what you're more familiar with. If you're sort of a distrohopping nomad like me, Ubuntu server edition comes with the most prepackaged stuff ready to go with the easiest setup, so as a catchall default I'd go with that.

Answer 5

For a LAMP stack ? For storage shares?

Probably something rock solid and boring like Debian stable. You don't want bleeding edge anyway for that type of stuff.