red hat install for newb :(

Dyr

So my boss has decided that we should install red hat enterprise on a new production system tomorrow. he told me this today. :mad:

i have zero linux experience, i do a wee bit of sys admin on unix tho. soooo am i right in saying this is a complete disaster in the making? i trust a fully networked version of linux with scsi raid etc isnt a matter of clicking "next" a few time in a wizard??

tomk

Excellent. What prompted your boss's decision? Does he know what to do with RHE? Does anyone in your company? Or is he going to contract someone else to install and maintain it?

Some of the RH/Fedora users around here may have more to say on this topic, but I understand that the config tools are pretty good. If you're going to be looking after this, can you at least ask your boss to dealy going into production while you do the necessary reading?!

pickarooney

You'd be surprised. Unless you have exotic hardware it should be relatively smooth.
I would hope that nothing critical will be running on the network for a while yet though, and that some kind of linux support is available.

Dyr

My boss knows nothing about nothing, All he can do is ask questions and then try look clever in front of his bosses. None of us use rhe or any other linux flavour. Having said that the server is probably a xeon with scsi raid and an internal backup device, so hopefully rhe will pick that all up

Ultimately, this is box going to going to host a replacement for a rather critical database system, and judging by his rush he thinks it'll be sooner rather than later, even though the last time we did something like this it took months to get the imports right. I've no idea what the space requirements or hdd config is gonna be, or what type of database is going on, I've had nothing to do with this baby or its predecessor until yesterday


i doubt very much if theres gonna be linux support unless the guys who designed and are gonna port our new db are giving it

*whine ends*

dahamsta

Linux installation is a breeze this days, but if this is a critical system you're going to need more than just installation. Issues with Linux can be just as difficult to trace as with Windows, and obviously more so if the tech has little or no experience with it. Distasteful as it is to say, if your boss isn't going to get someone trained to handle the system or contract with professionals to manage it, you should be advising strongly against installation for a short term saving.

If he balks, give him the TCO argument, these guys love TLAs. Tell him it'll cost in the short term but it'll save a fortune in the long term because when the box is settled in it'll never go down. This probably sounds like a dodgy statement but it's not: The only time my boxes go down is when they lose power or connectivity, or I make a silly mistake, like not rotating logfiles correctly. (One of my bugbears. Keeps biting me in the ass. )

adam

Cake Fiend

Bambi wrote:

i trust a fully networked version of linux with scsi raid etc isnt a matter of clicking "next" a few time in a wizard??

Actually, probably not far from it, knowing Red Hat. But, as previously mentioned, it's what comes after the installation that matters. Maybe now is the time to try to wangle a RHCE course out of the company?

niallb

Red Hat Enterprise Server is an expensive way to test out linux for the first time.
What you're paying for it should give you some good support.
What version did you get? Make sure it's up to date, or support may have lapsed.

I found RHE to be a little behind on hardware detection last time I installed it.
No problems that I recall, but a little clunky. At the time, it was the only certified
platform for Oracle 9ir2 on linux. The version oracle released without mentioning
that the ODBC support was unfinished, and never got finished...
Upgrade a system, and fnd bits missing... the remote bits... Lovely day.
The reason for the upgrade? The support contract had lapsed for the previous release.

Redhat loves Dell servers, so if that's your platform, it should be a breeze.
Sico is right though, get a course out of it. If you already have unix experience, it'll
be easy enough to handle. The control panels might look a little strange, but it's
all vi under the hood.

NiallB

Dyr

dahamsta wrote:

If he balks, give him the TCO argument, these guys love TLAs. Tell him it'll cost in the short term but it'll save a fortune in the long term

The reason for the upgrade? The support contract had lapsed for the previous release

thats basically the position we're in, legacy system, old teamserver, little hardware support, even less application support etc

dahamsta wrote:

Distasteful as it is to say, if your boss isn't going to get someone trained to handle the system or contract with professionals to manage it, you should be advising strongly against installation for a short term saving.

Thats pretty much my plan, I'm going to throw every cliched ex-consultant question he uses to avoid green lighting anything we suggest at him. I even write them down

this guy loves to bang on about correct procedures, testing and planning, but it all goes out the window when he wants to look good to his superiors, or even worse, he might look bad to em. Either way i havent a clue what the guys who are gonna set this db system up need so disk configuration etc is gonna be fun

Still i've been wanting to have a look at this new fangled linux stuff, even if i cant stand vi and all non gui **** :eek:

dahamsta

Bambi wrote:

Still i've been wanting to have a look at this new fangled linux stuff, even if i cant stand vi and all non gui ****

I'm a big GUI guy meself, which is why I still run Windows on the desktop, however if I didn't have my servers to play with I'd give it all up tomorrow. There's nothing quite like logging into a troublesome machine and wrestling with it at the command-line, especially when they challenge you. Or figuring out that you can do in one command-line today what took you ten lines a year before.

What makes me laugh is how impressed regular users are when you fire up a console and start typing commands, when all you're really doing is retyping "service httpd restart" several times cos you can't spell with someone looking over your shoulder.

All that being said, and I find myself saying this a lot these days, Linux is pretty much there now. I downloaded a SuSE LiveCD last week for example, and liked it so much I bought the full distro. I'm looking forward to logging into it again tomorrow to tweak it a little more. I can see it becoming my default desktop next month.

adam

Dyr

emergency over, the fuppin muppet got spooked by all my questions and rang the guys who are porting the db system for answers. they wanted to know why the hell we were installing the OS as that was their job :rolleyes:

Just means i wasted half a day reading up on one of this eejits whims :mad:

illustration of his muppetry:

"those guys will do it all on monday so they dont need anyhting from you"

"Really?? not even ip details??"

"no, they'll sort that out too"

:rolleyes:

still i get to play with a new OS soon... wheeeeee

pickarooney

I wouldn't say it was a half-day wasted, you'll surely put it to good use soon enough. Try and watch when they're installing the stuff so you get a rough idea how the partitioning and installation goes. Actually, that'll probably just goign to cause them to typo repeatedly

tomk

Bambi wrote:

still i get to play with a new OS soon... wheeeeee

And people wonder why the worst security risks are internal........!

monkey tennis

dahamsta wrote:

What makes me laugh is how impressed regular users are when you fire up a console and start typing commands, when all you're really doing is retyping "service httpd restart" several times cos you can't spell with someone looking over your shoulder.

Heheh, when I was on a job in Italy, they all thought I was some sort of l33t hax0r because I was FTPing through the command line! Having said that, I type faster than I move a mouse and I'd be frustrated without command-line tools and keyboard shortcuts, even in Windows. Once you learn Vi, you develop a long-lasting love for the balance between simplicity and complexity of it.

mambo50

I've been using linux and other *ix'es now for just over two years . Previously i'd only worked in windows.
To most windows users watching a *ix user using a shell is like watching pure voodoo magic.
They often think, "oh! DOS", i used to use something like that 10 years ago!. Whereas comparing DOS to even the bash shell is like comparing the power of a modern computer to child's calculator.

Dyr

anywhoo, the guy came in and installed this baby, turned out he never installed red hat either lol but twas grand, Ive been trying to figure out how to back it all up to tape lol but I think ive got it running now. Samba looks interesting too, must have a read up on it