[COLUG] Centos version questions, and a few others..

[Tom Hanlon]

Colug,

I just purchased (leased ? ) a self managed server that is running  
Centos. Centos is a good choice in my opinion, but I want to get all  
my upgrades and security configuration out of the way before I set up  
my apache and the like on this machine.

The questions I have are..

%<=======
[root at main etc]# cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.9-67.0.1.ELsmp (mockbuild at builder6.centos.org) (gcc  
version 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-9)) #1 SMP Wed Dec 19 16:01:12  
EST 2007
%<======

I assume that  (gcc version 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-9))
implies that I am running the CentOS version that is equivalent to  
RHEL3.4 .
Is that assumption correct ?

If I am running RHEL 3.4 then perhaps I should upgrade to RHEL5, the  
CentOS equivalent.

Are there any concerns about using YUM to make this upgrade?

my yum.conf is minimal, looks like they stuck some CD's in and  
installed.

%<==========
[root at main etc]# less /etc/yum.conf

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
pkgpolicy=newest
installonlypkgs=kernel kernel-smp kernel-devel kernel-smp-devel  
kernel-largesmp
kernel-largesmp-devel kernel-hugemem kernel-hugemem-devel
distroverpkg=centos-release
tolerant=1
exactarch=1
retries=20
obsoletes=1
gpgcheck=1
plugins=1

# PUT YOUR REPOS HERE OR IN separate files named file.repo
# in /etc/yum.repos.d
%<========

I guess I will be finding a CentOS mirror, the server is in Toledo.


I will be installing and exploring memcached, does anyone have any  
experiences that they would like to share ?

I am interested in the current landscape of security tools for  
CentOS? Any advice. The last server I configured the collection of  
tools was logwatch , snort, and a few others. What is the current set  
of tools used for secutity. Is there a RH based security suite that  
is worth using ?

I intended to build my box and perhaps rent rackspace from one of the  
list members, due to a lack of time, just leasing a self managed box  
made the best short term solution when I faced an emergency with my  
previous machine. I may build my own machine and find a local space  
at a later date but for now renting a machine is a good intermediate  
solution that gives me time to organize the stuff that I currently host.

Thanks for all of your help.

Regards,

Tom Hanlon