Comments on: Another Small Victory for Ubuntu Server Edition

By: Fat Pop Do Wop

Fat Pop Do Wop — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:24:35 +0000

There’s no problem using GRUB2 with a RAID array. I have set this up on machines with SCSI RAID 5 built in to the motherboard, on Adaptec cards, and with RAID 1 on SATA, all with no problems whatsoever.
I fear that “Jimmy The Geek” at number 3 may be a geek in some other discipline such as accountancy.

By: Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Lawrence D'Oliveiro — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:50:46 +0000

Re GRUB2 and RAID—while I haven’t used GRUB2, it should still work the same as GRUB1 in one respect, namely it can boot off either half of a software (mdadm) RAID-1 container.

If you’re using RAID on Linux, I would recommend sticking with mdadm software RAID. It has good, reliable, hardware-independent admin tools and container formats. And the individual disks still remain directly accessible, making it easy to do things like run badblocks diagnostics on them.

By: Nevyn

Nevyn — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:40:11 +0000

Is Michael Katz taking the mickey? I remember using Redhat 7.3 where one of the first pieces of software I installed was apt (I’ve never liked yum).

Surely Ubuntu’s biggest competition on this front is Debian. Generally speaking, given that every Debian release is a LTS version, it makes sense to stick to Debian. The things that have made Ubuntu popular on the desktop aren’t quite as compelling in a server context.

By: jef spaleta

jef spaleta — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:43:41 +0000

I’m in Antarctica…but that’s beside the point.

Like all ISV announcements, this is good news for Ubuntu “users”.. but is this a good thing for Canonical or for the Ubuntu ecosystem as a whole? At some point ISV’s who are trying to leverage the popularity of Ubuntu to make a buck are going to have to start sinking resources in sustaining Ubuntu. This company isn’t putting resources into Ubuntu developmnent. They aren’t even making use of Launchpad or the PPA infrastructure it provides to host software. Eucalyptus is a far stronger ISV partner for Canonical in that respect.

And I’m suspicious of the comment about people moving off RHEL. I can see people moving off CentOS or other RHEL-alike distributions..but _paying_ RHEL customers…doubtful.

It’s also interesting that they are not setting up a Debian Lenny or Squeeze apt repository side by side with the Ubuntu one. Makes me wonder…are they not seeing that much Debian server usage in their userbase? I would imagine that Ubuntu server competes more directly with Debian in terms of deployments than it does RHEL.

-jef

By: The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:22:41 +0000

Seth: Please get in touch with The VAR Guy if you have a moment. Our resident blogger would like to hear more about how you’re leveraging Ubuntu Server.

TheVARguy [at] NineLivesMediaInc.com
-TVG

By: Seth

Seth — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:22:09 +0000

Probably Ubuntu server will hit a different market than Red Hat and SuSE. The full product can be used totally for free and basic single server support is only $750 per year. Our company has used it for free on six servers for the past year (files, backups, database, web server). Knock on wood, it had worked perfectly.

By: The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:16:40 +0000

Prometheus@1: Agreed, Red Hat has tight relationships with the hardware players. Canonical, so far, has reasonable server relationships with folks like HP. And niche players like System76 and ZaReason. But The VAR Guy hasn’t heard much Ubuntu Server chatter from most of the server players…

Simplicius@2: Careful what you ask for… Kidding aside, Jef’s perspectives are always welcome. Healthy debate keeps The VAR Guy honest (hopefully…)

Jimmy the Geek@3: Who you pickin’ in the Super Bowl? The VAR Guy will check in with Canonical about Ubuntu and RAID.
-TVG

By: Jimmy the Geek

Jimmy the Geek — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:53:03 +0000

The showstopper for me is the fact that Grub2, the default bootloader, doesn’t do RAID! Otherwise, it’s a GREAT server distro.

By: Simplicius

Simplicius — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:16:13 +0000

I’m waiting for Spaleta to ask the exact same questions he asks every single time there are news even remotely related to either Ubuntu or Canonical. Where is he?

By: Prometheus

Prometheus — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:05:13 +0000

Still hasn’t got the level of hardware support as RH, though, which still makes it a bit of a risk when compared – maybe 2010 will change that? Its not only apt – the support of the community is a big plus. To the point where even if I’m looking for Rh help, I often google with ‘ubuntu’ keyword because I’m less likely to get a ‘well submit a patch for it then!’ kind of answer.