Separate servers for different roles

aminocc · n00b Joined: 08 Mar 2009 Posts: 2

I have been running Gentoo for years on a single box. The one server handled LAMP, DNS, Email, and others. I recently purchased a new server that I have installed VMWare on. I would like to run separate instances of gentoo for the various roles the previous server handled, but I haven't been able to find any documentation the best way to go about this.

My biggest issue is that I am trying to prevent duplication of applications being installed that are already installed on a different "server". For example, when I install an ftp server or email server app, I would like the app to be compiled to work with a database backend, but not have the database installed on that server instance.

Am I approaching this the wrong way? Should I be bothering with separate gentoo instances vs the way it was before with everything on one box? The benefit to me was if one server with one role gets hosed, I only have to take care of that one piece while the other servers continue on.

Thanks for any advice.

MaximeG · l33t Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 722 Location: Belgium

Hi,

Why not using user role on the box :

user ftp runs ftp server, user sql runs sql server ... ?

Actually it depends on why you want to separate these roles.

Regards,
Maxime
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ToeiRei · Veteran Joined: 03 Jan 2005 Posts: 1191 Location: Austria

I have tried to separate servers some while ago and linking them (mailserver uses MySQL of the webserver, i.e.) and it turned out to be a fine thing if the servers do have fast links. If you're doing the separation for security reasons, it's better to have 'stand alone boxes'...

just my two cents

Rei
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aminocc · n00b Joined: 08 Mar 2009 Posts: 2

The main reason I wanted to separate roles was mostly to take advantage of the VMWare Server software I have installed. I also have had problems (very rarely, but it is a hassle) where upgrading an application has broken the system. I figured it would be easier to fix a separate instance that is running one or two services instead of having to repair the entire system.

szczerb · Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 10:40 am Post subject:

I'm guessing that KVM might be faster then vmware...