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Which to choose - CentOS 32 or Debian 64 bit?
I am new to this VPS arena & i have taken a 512 MB Ram box (Open VZ) to host my blog that receives around 25k-30k/ day visitors with 75k page views /day.
99% of the content is pure text & will run on Wordpress.
Now im caught in a situation on which Linux distro to install.The hosting company provides CentOS 6.0 32 bit, Ubuntu 64 bit & Debian 6 64 bit.I have heard people here as well in LEB say that debian consumes less RAM compared to other distros mentioned above.
1) Which to choose, considering the amount of traffic i receive.
2) If I choose 64 bit debian or Ubuntu, is it possible to downgrade to 32 bit versions incase the hosting company adds them at a later date?
Your suggestions are those I look for!
Comments
Just ask them to add debian 6 32bit template?
They hv said they wont be adding it...Dont know the reason why.
And in that case... do you absolutely have to stay with that host?
By the way if they have a debian 5 32bit template then you can install that and then upgrade it to debian 6 yourself.
Apart from this OS choices, they have good specs given to me.They dont have any Debian releases apart from the Debian 6 64 bit.
So im not thinking of moving from them.Let me know which OS to opt , from he choices given..
Normally you should choose whichever OS you are most comfortable with managing. I would personally prefer debian. Of course 64bit may waste some memory (compared to 32bit), but if you fit in your allocation then that shouldn't be a problem.
As i said, Im news to server management & am still testing waters.At this stage, im more concerned about the memory usage between Cent OS32 bit & Debian 64 bit.
Is it possible to install Debian 64 bit & downgrade it to 32 bit from within itself.Does 64 bit offer something like that?
I presume Centos 32 bit will take less RAM, so I would go with Centos if these where my choices. And AFAIK, there's no way to upgrade an OS at least in OpenVZ (eg from Centos 5 to 6) without full OS reload, which means everything on the VPS is deleted. And the same goes with OS build change (32bit or 64bit), so if they added Debian 32 bit anytime later you can't change to it without a full OS reload which deletes everything on the VPS container, you need to configure everything just like if you've just received the VPS.
Are you going to use a control panel like cPanel? I would go with Centos if im using cPanel or Directadmin.
You cannot downgrade from 64 bit to 32 bit without reinstalling.
Thanks go599 & rds100.I dont prefer to use cPanel but rather go for Webmin
Go with the distro you know best. A 32bit distro will use less memory than its 64bit counterpart, but it's not a showstopper.
How you setup & configure your web environment -- http, php, mysql -- will have a much greater impact on memory usage.
And check with the provider to ensure the box has 1 GB 'burst' memory (privvmpages setting in OpenVz) if it's not using vswap.
As @sleddog said you will want to go with the distro you have the most experience with (even if, as you said, you're new to the whole thing) though I find Cent to be quite nice.
If you're intent on using a panel and worried about memory usage, you might want to consider Cent+Kloxo. Configured properly, total memory usage (with lighttpd, PHP, MySQL et al.) can be under 150MB.
I have successfully upgraded Debian to newer version (lenny-->squeeze-->wheezy) on OpenVZ platform.
Debian is indeed upgradeable between major versions. CentOS is definitely not.
Is it not possible to install the debian 32 bit version myself on my box, rather than asking the hosting provider to add the template? (wanted to know!!)
I wonder that...
Or in other words, maybe there is a way to convert manually between 32-64?
CentOA All the way from the start.
Like has been said, use the distribution that you are most familiar with. They will all get the job done.
In my experience with OpenVZ the 64 bit linux versions use a lot more ram. With only 512 MB a 32 bit OS will be fine unless you have some special requirement for 64bit.
I am new to VPS, so in any case, I would have to rely on tutorials to crawl my way in setting up.The biggest question I asked was 'Performance'.
Performance doesn't vary between distributions. It's determined by the resources available (RAM, CPU, disk speed, etc) and your configurations.
Are you sure?
In the sense that one distribution isn't inherently "faster" or "better" (performance-wise) than another distro, yes.
A newer kernel might out-perform an older kernel, or a new version of application X might out-perform an older version. But maybe not
It's impossible to say that Debian out-performs CentOS, or vice-versa.
Sleddog is correct, there's no inherent benefit to a bare Debian or CentOS install. Personally I find CentOS and other EL-based systems a bit easier to work with, but that's only my preference. You may want to look around at different guides and tutorials for what you'll be doing, and see if they're written for Debian or CentOS.
In regard to the upgrading/downgrading between 64- and 32-bit systems, it will be difficult (if not impossible) to do without rebuilding the VPS. Try to install the system you'll need when you first setup the VPS, and stick with it, it will be much easier in the long run!
Personally, I think Debian works great on low end boxes.I have finally got the provider to install Debian 6 & removed CentOS & the commands are a breeze to work on Debian.
Earlier on CentOS, even 'yum' would clog the memory forcing me to reboot often.I dont know the exact reason behind it BUT I have not encountered any such clogging or hanging with the Debian.
That's because Debian rulz xD
(Ubuntu in thw worst case...)
Fanboy here
Going from 64-bit to 32-bit or vice versa is going to be very difficult, if not impossible. An OS reload is definitely recommended if you decide to do this.
However, upgrading from one version of CentOS to another is possible... just not quite as automated as Debian/Ubuntu. It requires some manual intervention. There are a number of posts about it in Google.
:-o
Ubuntu fanboy here
Centos is good for hosting only, debian or ubuntu for personal or custom servers with application
centos and kloxo will be perfect. For setting up all feel free to ask us in our forum
You can't switch between 32 and 64 bit without a full reinstall.
As far as what OS to use, my recommendation would be to just use the OS you are most comfortable with. Pick an OS that you will be happy to manage day in and day out, and that you are confident and comfortable using.
Are you sure? https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch64_FAQ#Can_I_upgrade.2Fswitch_my_system_from_i686_to_x86_64_without_reinstalling.3F