Thinking forward, I’m trying to figure out what OS to run on my 1U server that should be shipping sometime today. My initial thought is Red Hat 7.x (or 8.x, though I’m not sure how well suited 8.x is to a server environment), as I know it better than any Linux/*BSD distro out there. (I did install Slackware from floppies on the family Pentium 60 several times, but that’s another story entirely…)
After a little investigation, I began to warm to the idea of putting Ensim for Linux on the server. It runs on top of Red Hat 7.2, and would make administering my sites really really easy. It would also come in handy on the off chance that I managed to sell some web hosting. I might even be able to partially defray colo costs.
I took a look at the ensim demos yesterday and I’m really impressed. The web interface makes administration a joke. Yes, I’m fully qualified to edit text files and run stuff at the command line. I do it on a daily basis. At the same time, I’d like to be able to stow this server and forget about it for the most part.
I’ve taken a look at the specs, though I have a few questions before I throw my money at them. It looks like I can run tomcat, which is a bonus. It looks like Python 2.1.x is installed by default, which is acceptable, but I’ve been working with 2.2.2, which is what I’d like to run. It appears that at least part of the ensim backend is run with Python, which could lock me into a specific version.
Here’s my question: does anyone out there have any good or bad experiences with Ensim? I’m sure some of us in managed hosting land are using a skinned version of Ensim for our control panel. I have a feeling that it might be a good compromise between what I want and how much work I’d like to put into it. Of course I can always SSH in and putz around. It also looks like they make some python command line utilities to administer Ensimland.
I think it’s the right solution for me, but I’m open to praise, horror stories, alternatives (yes, Webmin rocks, I know), or anything else you’ve got. Email me, I’d love to know.