- A local mirror of RedHat 9, Debian, etc, would be great (mirror with updates too). If it already exist, where?

- A 'recovery' configuration. Something like tom's bootdisk, installed on a 10 MB partition, read-only and shared across the system (mounts only the user's drives of course). Yes there is the 100MB Debian install, but I imagine that most people don't leave unused space to install something like that for when it is needed. I might actually play with building one for myself.

- I noticed that with the RedHat image, the ssh keys had already been created. If it's the same way with the other dist. then most of the hosts here are probably running one of six keys? Just a suggestion, creating a 'quick-start' guide for each of the distribution that went over things like recreating the ssh keys, applying any updates that have come out, changing cron to email to an offsite email address, etc.

- Forgot.. backups? I saw a post about this somewhere and was wondering about that stats.

Kenny

Hey Kenny - thanks for the great suggestions ..

The local mirror is something that I planned on offering -- it's actually what your /dev/ubdh device is reserved for. My plan was to have a read-only mountable partition with all that stuff. That way it wouldn't count towards bandwidth (or complicate matters).

My concern at this point is that it would go fairly unutilized - perhaps once we grow a little more I'll be able to provide that (or if I receive more requests for it).

The recovery feature is something I had in place using Toms Root Boot, but removed it before we launched because I hadn't paid it much attention and needed to be updated. It is exactly as you described it - a globally available read-only image that can save your butt in an emergency.

Also note I added the ability to boot into single user mode - so I'll work towards the goal of providing a small recovery distro.

The SSH keys is something that concerns me. I don't believe all the distros have the keys made already -- The Red Hat distro might have it's keys made from when I modified the distro last week or so. I'll add this to my scripts that prepare the installations.

Your suggestions for things to perform when you deploy Linux is an excellent idea -- feel free to post a tutorial -- also add to the list "How to change your cron job times" - The servers get hammered with all the Red Hat's cron-jobs going off at the same time.

Currently, it's up to members to perform backups. I don't have an ETA on our backup facility, but your inquiry helps to raise its priority (like your other requests).

Thanks for your suggestions!

-Chris

I turned my notes into a small tutorial for setting up redhat 9. It's up at http://muspellsheim.net/~kenny/linode/r ... start.html please feel free to rip it off incase you ever decide to post one somewhere (please rip it off! I hardly know or even try html).

Also, just wondering if any other users would be interested in getting together and creating a schedule for heavy cronjobs. Something like shifting out nightlys by thirty minutes or something. Just an idea, curious as to what others are using host2 for :)

Kenny

I'd like to put in a second vote for local access to distros (and updates...). Actually, what I'd really like is a local mirror of rpmfind for the distros you support, but that would be a lot to ask...

Perhaps another method would work better. I expect as you gain customers, there will be some commonality amongst the things they want to add to their distro. Perhaps you could set up some sort of 'RPMs by request' cache locally. In other words, rather than blindly mirroring rpmfind, set up a method where customers can request individual RPMs (and their dependencies) to be mirrored locally.

I have some work to do to get my linode the way I like it - installing/configuring the latest stable shorewall, rsync, OpenVPN (and probably PoPToP), amavisd-new, clamav, and spamassassin, snort, dshield, rkdet, chrootkit, and psad. Then there's the configuration of these and the existing services. It's going to take me a while, and anything that makes it a little easier would be much appreciated.

By the way, have you considered offering a 'value added' distro with some of this stuff pre-installed/auto-configured? I guess it depends on the mix of customers as to whether it would be popular.

Paul