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

[Angelo McComis]

Tom,

I use Centos outside of my ft job almost exclusively.  The Centos website has detailed steps listed for how to go from the one major release to the next using yum. E.g. From 3 to 4, and by same steps, from 4 to 5. I haven't tried a 3 to 5 upgrade though. Both are 2.6-based, so it seems possible.

Regarding memcached, I thought I had an opportunity to use it, and before making the architectural changes, I subscribed to their mailing list to ask about my scenario. I was pleasantly surprised how generous the list subscribers there with my "noob" questions. So while I can't say yes oir no, I can say their mailing list was very helpful.

Regarding security suites, check out NST. Its more of its own distro, but you should check out their kit to see what they are including/using.  NST=Network Security Toolkit.

I have surplus rackspace here in town. Not to turn this into a commercial post, but reach out offlist if you need a place to call ~/.

Angelo

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Hanlon <tom at functionalmedia.com>

Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:20:06 
To:Central Group <colug432 at colug.net>
Subject: [COLUG] Centos version questions, and a few others..


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


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