how do you handle (un)supported linux distributions?

[Dotan Cohen]

On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 07:44, Gabor Szabo <szabgab at gmail.com> wrote:
>> So it is a supported OS. Your subject line implied that it is no
>> longer receiving [security] updates.
>
> That's case for some of the companies I encounter.
> Not for the places where I am in charge.
>

I see.

> According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RHEL
> RHEL 3 was end-of-life half a year ago. Unless you have the extended support.
>

No, it's standard (un-)support. It's not my box.

> There are at least two sides of this coin:
> One of them is that if you stick to the vendor supported packages (e.g. MySQL)
> then as time goes by you will be more and more limited to put new applications
> on your server as they require newer versions of those other packages.
>
> The other one is that every upgrade has its risks. What if the new version
> of MySQL (or any other dependency your applications have) made some
> changes that break your application? The longer you wait with the upgrade
> the bigger these differences can be. The higher the risk for the upgrade.
>

Well stated. It's often not an easy decision.


> Of course if you put Joomla (for example) that does not come with your
> distribution
> on your server then you already put some non-vendor package there.
> Why not then replace the MySQL with one that does not come from your OS vendor?
> Where do you draw the line between
>   "This thing I can install only from my OS vendor"
> and
>  "This thing I can install from elsewhere. (e.g. source, binary from
> the developer, etc.)"
>

Of course I always make an effort to use vendor-supplied software when
available. Things that the vendor does not supply, or only support an
older version, I deal with on a case by case basis. Often there will
be conflicting interests.

In this case I am considering just using an MySQL instance on a
different host in the same rack. MySQL makes this very easy, but not
all software has it this easy.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com