Ideal Linux container for webserver, which debian?

[luison]

Hello everyone

A couple of years now on proxmox VE and we plan to virtualize an online webserver we currently run on Ubuntu 9. Our initial intention was to upgrade a local VM very similar we have on Ubuntu 9 to latest release and use that as a base to produce the final one.

Although we seem to be advancing with that I've read quite a few negative comments about Ubuntu 10 container capabilities, some of them coming from the Proxmox team itself and that is putting as back from continuing this root.

As an alternative we are considering starting from scratch (with the additional work involved) basing our servers directly on Debian to avoid this, as I feel is the widest supported container system for OpenVZ. We could do the same with Ubuntu 10 but if we have to start from scratch I would rather get away from Ubuntu and hopefully the config is very much the same on both.

I understand that against it, is that Debian is rather slow with package updates so our concern is if we should directly install Debian 6 as I imagine is not that long for the final release or stick to 5, in which case for example we'll have to workout how to patch it to install PHP 5.3 for example which is not a standart packager for that version.

Any comments on either using or not Ubuntu 10 (or stick with 9) or which Debian version to use will be appreciated.

 

[tom]

I would go for Debian 6 (squeeze) as it will be stable soon (and it is quite stable already)

 

[dietmar]

in which case for example we'll have to workout how to patch it to install PHP 5.3 for example which is not a standart packager for that version.

AFAIK there is php 5.3 in squeeze:

http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/php5

 

[luison]

Thanks. We will be migrating then from Ubuntu 9 to Debian 6 for the new system as per your comments.

I understand you only have one (i386) official template, but one doubt that I have choosing OpenVZ templates is is the version ("i386 or amd64") refers to the host machine or to the VM it will create. I mean do I need to choose it depending on the hardware or the resulting VM machine?

Many thanks again, I'll try to write briefly the steps of the migration and publish it.

 

[tom]

we have amd64 and i386 templates for Debian 6, but only the i386 is integrated in our downloader.

> just download the amd64 template manually and store it on /var/lib/vz/template/cache

Proxmox VE is always a am64 machine, so its up to you which one you prefer - both run fine.

see ftp://download.proxmox.com/appliances/system/

 

[svenr]

You can still use i386. It refers to the memory you need. For example, if you need more then 2 GB for mysql, then you should use amd64. But it only makes sense if all of the software you are using is compiled for 64bit.

Keep in mind, that 64bit won´t double the speed of 32bit ;-)
If its critical and i dont need the features of 64bit-Version, then i would stay with 32bit and setup a test-vm with 64bit. If its working, then migrating to 64bit is the second step.