On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 2:41 AM, Mark Dorset
<mdorset@trinity.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:
We're mainly a Debian Linux server environment, though have been running Zimbra with a small number of mailboxes for a couple of years on a Mac OS X Server. We're considering an expansion from our roughly 40 mailboxes to around 300 and thinking that a linux based server might be better. Given Ubuntu shares many similarities to Debian it's the obvious choice, but I thought I'd ask if anyone here has any reason to suggest using caution over using RHEL, or any other UNIX variant? (If anyone else is using Mac OS X Server on a medium sized deployment and wants to convince me that's the best choice too, I'm all ears).
We run Zimbra 5.x on Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS (64-bit). Things are running great. It's even running in a KVM virtual machine.
If you know Debian, you can admin Ubuntu Server. The only major difference is that there's no root login by default, and the first user that you create (during the install) is given full sudo access. If you really want a root login, it's a simple "sudo passwd root" away.
Sticking with the LTS releases is almost the same as running Debian stable releases, as there's a 5-year term for security support. And there are backports repositories if you need newer software.
Unless you already have experience with RedHat systems, switching from Debian to RedHat would be more pain than gain. The management tools are completely different, the management philosophy is completely different, system configuration is completely different. Stick with what you know best.