Fedora vs CentOS -- php/apache and Drupal 7

[Bill Davidsen]

Roger wrote:
> This is a call for understanding because of lack of knowledge. Apologies for the
> mix of issues in one message but they all relate to the same problem.
> Firstly,
> I've been reading the pro's and con's of RHEL and Fedora and am none the wiser.
> It seems to be around cost of service and lack or availability thereof. The
> beginning discussion was, I think on stability.
>
> It made me start thinking about Fedora vs CentOS because of the problems I'm
> experiencing with Drupal 7 and php/Apache in Fedora 18 so here goes.
>
You need to make sure the Drupal and php versions are compatible. Actually the 
php and everything else, as my impression is that 5.4 is not a proper superset 
of earlier versions, a clear violation of Plauger's Law of Least Astonishment.

> I believe that the latest Apache updates of some time ago were flawed or do not
> correctly  interact with php or php updates were flawed and have not been
> corrected. I have nothing to back up this assertion other than the problems now
> being experienced and a recommendation to remove php 5.4 and revert to an
> earlier version.
> Please don't quote me on this, It's what I've noticed, read and considered.
>
What I said, but only the advice without the explanation. An upgrade to whatever 
is not working to match php would be better, but you do what you must.

> When I use Ruby on Rails I do not have issues because it uses WEBrick.
>
Answered elsewhere.

> Discussion to date says that CentOS circa 6.n has the Fedora 14 kernel, is rock
> solid and gets updates every 6 months approx.
> Fedora 18 has kernel updates every few days or weeks at most. Frankly I enjoy
> the update cycle. It's interesting to see what gets improved. I have always run
> latest Fedora versions and have not experienced the current raft of problems.
>
RHEL/CentOS/SL are not "updated" to new versions (with rare exceptions) but 
patched with back ported security fixes. THis gives stbility (they work the 
same) with security (the bugs stop being an issue).

> Fedora 18 sudo yum update, updates everything apps, modules, etc that needs
> security fixes or improvements.
>
> CentOS is a server system but can be used for a stable desktop system and has
> been recommended as an alternative.
> So what does CentOS 6.n desktop, yum update actually update or does it leave all
> the apps like cinnamon desktop, skype, gimp, apache, php, libreoffice, python,
> pulseaudio, gnome, Firefox or chrome as they are first installed, circa Fedora
> 14ish?
> One would think that this would leave significant vulnerability.
> If it runs the latest spate of updates then is it not little different from
> Fedora 18 but with an old kernel?
>
It stays like Fedora14, old software now working as intended.

> Further reading implies that the better CentOS installation should be text based
> as a server only and that I should run all my work on the server not Fedora 18.
>
> I am now having significant problems with an already built Drupal 7 site on
> Fedora 18 after the latest spate of php updates and am perplexed as to what to
> do to get a quality stable functioning and stay functioning.
>   I've got ubuntu 12.10 but it is now so slow that it's not easy to use.
>
> Further, I have 2 gig memory, intel mb, fast dual cpu, 250g hard drives and my
> desktop fedora 18 uses 55-63 percent memory. I thought this may be affecting php
> and apache, hence Drupal, but
> The Dell 1520 laptop has the same internals and memory and uses 25percent of the
> 2 gig memory, same drupal, same Ruby on Rails.
> I'm puzzled because after checking ps aux, top, and System Monitor on both they
> are very similar yet memory usage is markedly different. I do not know what I
> should be looking at to understand the issues and/or fixes.
>
Depends on what you have run and are running, stuff will be in cache and 
buffers, that RAM is "available" rather than "free." Read about caching if that 
isn't enough.

> Is there an app that I can use to track what happens in the browser, apache, php
> and Drupal when I start the Drupal site on my machine.
> Help is greatly appreciated

The top program may shed some light, I don't think of anything off-hand which 
measures disk performance on a per-process basis.

> thanks in advance
> Roger
> Off Topic...Does anyone know of a Rails dev who would be able to help and teach
> me building a small application?

Not my thing to do for fun or money.


-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot