[SOLVED] Minimal non-bloated install for a Mageia Server

[NickC]

I notice there is no dedicated Mageia Server, just wondering how suitable Mageia is as a server OS? Is there a minimal install which avoids all of the usual desktop bloatware?

Thanks,

[doktor5000]

Jep, either the dualarch CD or you can directly do a netinstall, to only install packages you want:
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Installation_Media

[djennings]

There are some meta-packages to help you set up your server quickly such as
task-lamp, task-lamp-php, task-lamp-perl, and task-lamp-extras

There are also a number of server setup GUIs available (assuming you intend to install a minimal desktop)
Install the drakwizard package and the server GUIs will appear in Mageia Control Centre

Mageia makes a very good server OS. My experience is that just about everything works out of the box with a sane configuration.
My one gripe at the moment is that webmin is broken in Mageia, but if you look at bugzilla you will see there is a workaround.

[djennings]

You may be aware that Mageia is a fork of Mandriva.
Mandriva has always had a dedicated server product with which they have tried to compete with Redhat and Suse (not particularly successfully it must be admitted, but that is due to marketing, not the quality of the product).

Recently Mandriva announced they would be basing their enterprise server product, not on their own platform, but on Mageia.
http://blog.mageia.org/en/2012/05/21/mageia-comes-full-circle/

This is a nice compliment to the stability and quality of Mageia as a server.

[NickC]

Thanks for the comments. Looks like Mageia might compete fairly well with CentOS on the server then.

I guess only down side is the short eighteen month support lifecycle, however that is compensated for in some way if Mageia continues to provide upgrade path to new versions as it has done from version 1 to 2.

[doktor5000]

Yeah, upgrade is easy, just change the online repositories to the new system and run urpmi --auto-update. It'll only update what you have installed, eg if there's no desktop environment you won't have on pushed onto the system by the upgrade.

I'm using Mageia as a headless server in a number of locations. I'm using Debian a lot but I like urpm, I'm considering switching some over to Mageia when the time to upgrade comes along.

[djennings]

Depending on the hardware you are using for your server, you may prefer to use the server optimised kernel. It is in the repo. Install the kernel-server-latest package.

Code: Select all

Name        : kernel-server-3.3.6-2.mga2
Version     : 1
Release     : 1.mga2
Group       : System/Kernel and hardware
Size        : 40372349                     Architecture: x86_64
Source RPM  : kernel-3.3.6-2.mga2.src.rpm
URL         : http://www.kernel.org
Summary     : Linux Kernel for server use with x86_64
Description :
The kernel package contains the Linux kernel (vmlinuz), the core of your
Mageia operating system. The kernel handles the basic functions
of the operating system: memory allocation, process allocation, device
input and output, etc. This kernel is compiled for server use, single or
multiple x86_64 processor(s)/core(s), using no preempt, HZ_100,
CFS cpu scheduler and cfq i/o scheduler.

This kernel relies on in-kernel smp alternatives to switch between up & smp
mode depending on detected hardware. To force the kernel to boot in single
processor mode, use the "nosmp" boot parameter.

[NickC]

Thanks, it appears as if I already have kernel-server-latest installed, possibly because I chose some items from the 'Server' meta package at install.

uname -r reports:
3.3.8-server-2.mga2

[tom_]

ok, if you haven't other questions,
could you mark this thread as [SOLVED]?
thanks

[NickC]

Well I would if only I could see how to! I must be missing the [SOLVED] option somewhere but I just can't find it, just searched this webpage but can't find any referrence to flaging this as solved. How do I do it?

[isadora]

NickC, just edit your first message in this topic.
Pre-fix the subject with [SOLVED], that's all.