This may be a noob question but there is something I have been trying to understand, there are currently three main versions of CentOS 4, 5, and 6. My main question is simply how do I know what version I should deploy? I have searched online and either I did not do a good job of searching or the information I get is inadequate.
To better understand why I ask this question, here are some of the build up questions. - Is there an online resource that lists (compare/contrast) the different versions (i.e. 4, 5, and 6) and why you should pick a particular one? - Is a particular version the best for a web server, how do I know this? - Should or does it matter what version I deploy? - Can assume that once a version is decided upon, one should stick to the latest release. i.e. for version 5, go with 5.7 right now?
If you can point me to an online resource, that would be awesome as well.
B.I.
on 10/3/2011 10:21 AM Bade Iriabho spake the following:
This may be a noob question but there is something I have been trying to understand, there are currently three main versions of CentOS 4, 5, and 6. My main question is simply how do I know what version I should deploy? I have searched online and either I did not do a good job of searching or the information I get is inadequate.
To better understand why I ask this question, here are some of the build up questions.
- Is there an online resource that lists (compare/contrast) the different
versions (i.e. 4, 5, and 6) and why you should pick a particular one?
- Is a particular version the best for a web server, how do I know this?
- Should or does it matter what version I deploy?
- Can assume that once a version is decided upon, one should stick to the
latest release. i.e. for version 5, go with 5.7 right now?
If you can point me to an online resource, that would be awesome as well.
B.I.
I would install the newest if it is a clean start and not replacing anything. It will have the longest remaining support cycle. The versions are more like snapshots in time than actually being different. 4 is nearing the end of its life, and 5 is over half way through. The only reason to go back to an older version is if you have some software that you need, that only will run on the older versions, or older hardware that the new version won't run on...
On 10/03/11 10:21 AM, Bade Iriabho wrote:
- Is there an online resource that lists (compare/contrast) the different
versions (i.e. 4, 5, and 6) and why you should pick a particular one?
EL4 is quite old, and nearly at EOSL, I'd not be deploying that for any new system
The choice of EL5 vs EL6 pretty much boils down to preference. 5 is well field tested, while 6 has a lot of new 'features', but I'd still deploy 6 for any new system unless you have a reason to stick with 5 (for instance, oracle database server is not yet supported on 6)
- Is a particular version the best for a web server, how do I know this?
for a webserver without specific additional requirements, you probably want the latest version.
- Should or does it matter what version I deploy?
it does if you need newer software than is built into the version you chose. For instance, EL5 has Apache HTTPD 2.2.3, Php 5.2.10, and MySQL 5.0.77. EL6 has httpd 2.2.15, php 5.3.2 and mysql 5.1.52
- Can assume that once a version is decided upon, one should stick to the
latest release. i.e. for version 5, go with 5.7 right now?
yes. regardless of which you install, if you `yum update`, you'll end up with the latest of the series.
On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 12:21 PM, Bade Iriabho ebade@mathbiol.org wrote:
This may be a noob question but there is something I have been trying to understand, there are currently three main versions of CentOS 4, 5, and 6. My main question is simply how do I know what version I should deploy? I have searched online and either I did not do a good job of searching or the information I get is inadequate.
To better understand why I ask this question, here are some of the build up questions.
- Is there an online resource that lists (compare/contrast) the different
versions (i.e. 4, 5, and 6) and why you should pick a particular one?
- Is a particular version the best for a web server, how do I know this?
- Should or does it matter what version I deploy?
- Can assume that once a version is decided upon, one should stick to the
latest release. i.e. for version 5, go with 5.7 right now?
If you can point me to an online resource, that would be awesome as well.
These 'Enterprise' versions have a very long update cycle during which the included software is kept stable, generally by avoiding new features and backporting bug and security fixes into the program versions originally shipped. Within the major release numbers you can usually expect 'yum update' not to break anything that was previously running (with rare exceptions, of course). There are only a couple of reasons that you would not choose the latest available. One is that you have existing programs that won't run on the newest release (which is why there is overlap), and another is that you want to avoid the bugs that are unavoidable with the big changes that come in the X.0 releases. But an installable 6.1 should be close and you can already update to it with the CR repo.
The older releases still work, but using them means you are missing out on years of development work and improvements in the software and will have a much shorter update life going forward.
Bade Iriabho wrote:
This may be a noob question but there is something I have been trying to understand, there are currently three main versions of CentOS 4, 5, and 6. My main question is simply how do I know what version I should deploy? I have searched online and either I did not do a good job of searching or the information I get is inadequate.
To better understand why I ask this question, here are some of the build up questions.
- Is there an online resource that lists (compare/contrast) the different
versions (i.e. 4, 5, and 6) and why you should pick a particular one?
What I think you need to understand is that there's a lifecycle to software releases, including operating systems. For example, CentOS 4 was released a few years ago. There were months (a year or more) of updates, then eventually CentOS 5 was released. Following that, updates to CentOS 5 were released... but bug and security fixes were backported to 4, and were released. Right now, 4 is starting to approach end of life (EoL); at that time, no more fixes will be backported, and there'll be no more updates. 5 is currently still getting updates, but 6 was released a few months ago. There are still things missing in 6 (for example, I'm still waiting for ffmpeg libs), and there are occasional bugs (why does pidgen, my IM client, pop up *under* firefox, so I don't notice my manager's trying to contact me for 20 min, for example), where 5.7, the current version of 5, is very solid.
Note that the above is true of every single o/s: for example, I think Windows XP is approaching EoL, while Internet Exploder 6 is *past* that (and there was much rejoicing).
So, which version you want depends on what you need. Note also that going up to the next release is not a trivial thing; usually, you want to load from scratch, where going up a subrelease means yum update, and things are almost never broken.
mark
On 10/4/11, m.roth@5-cent.us m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Note that the above is true of every single o/s: for example, I think Windows XP is approaching EoL, while Internet Exploder 6 is *past* that (and there was much rejoicing).
IIRC WinXP is already EoL'd for general end users but still a couple of years for those on extended commercial support.
On Tuesday, October 04, 2011 02:17 PM, Emmanuel Noobadmin wrote:
On 10/4/11, m.roth@5-cent.usm.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Note that the above is true of every single o/s: for example, I think Windows XP is approaching EoL, while Internet Exploder 6 is *past* that (and there was much rejoicing).
IIRC WinXP is already EoL'd for general end users but still a couple of years for those on extended commercial support.
up to 2014 and only SP3. Sp2 and older are EOL.
Thanks guys for the responses. Much appreciated.
B.I.
On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 6:34 AM, Christopher Chan < christopher.chan@bradbury.edu.hk> wrote:
On Tuesday, October 04, 2011 02:17 PM, Emmanuel Noobadmin wrote:
On 10/4/11, m.roth@5-cent.usm.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Note that the above is true of every single o/s: for example, I think Windows XP is approaching EoL, while Internet Exploder 6 is *past* that (and there was much rejoicing).
IIRC WinXP is already EoL'd for general end users but still a couple of years for those on extended commercial support.
up to 2014 and only SP3. Sp2 and older are EOL. _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
-
Bade Iriabho -
Christopher Chan -
Emmanuel Noobadmin -
John R Pierce -
Les Mikesell -
m.roth＠5-cent.us -
Scott Silva