Documentation and support

Would you care for a side-serving of experience and wisdom?

Unlike desktop Linux, where you’re ready to muck about with the system post-installation, server distributions require a greater degree of tweaking before they are ready for deployment. Not only must administrators contend with getting the different services to gel, they must also ensure the system is properly configured, or risk a security breach. This is why proper documentation is integral to a production server.

All the distributions boast a sizeable user community and the usual host of aids that come with it, such as mailing lists, forums and so on. The Centos wiki is home to a great number of useful Tips & Tricks as well as how-tos on a variety of topics such as installation, encryption and more.

Debian, one of the oldest continuously developed Linux distributions, is also quite popular for servers, mostly because of the thorough and rigorous testing packages go through to get into the stable release. A comprehensive system admin’s manual complements its forum boards, how-tos and wiki. The Clearos forums are quite popular with users running the Community edition, but also feature useful information that’s vital for all administrators. The project’s Knowledge Base is home to a vast collection of how-tos. These are split across different categories such as network, gateway and server.

Apart from its thorough, screenshot-laden documentation hosted on the website, Zentyal also offers a book aimed at network administrators. The ebook is priced at £24, while the print edition will set you back about £40.

While the Nethserver administrator manual isn’t as robust as the others, its community-hosted forums and how-tos are second to none.