Linux distro for js server that uses lots of python code?

[Pofi]

So, as the title says - any ideas on which distribution i should choose and why for a website server - the machine itself will only run a node.js server which will call many python scripts to crunch and mainly store moderate amounts (few hundred gigs) of data in sqlite3.

 

A thing to consider is that I'm fairly new to Unix systems and would like the setup process to be relatively easy - that being said I don't want it to be the Windows or Apple-like "here's the OS set to our decided defaults and you can't change anything". For example Gentoo was too hard for me, while Debian was quite nice (I couldnt get the graphics drivers to work tho... but that's not important in this case). I've also tried openSuse.

[LtStaffel]

@Pofi follow your own threads, I'm also interested in the answer to your question though

[manikyath]

i'm gonna push for giving debian another try, but dont bother with a graphical interface, do everything trough SSH and (s)FTP.

 

ubuntu server is worth a look as well, especially if you're new, because of the massive amount of information avaliable from the ubuntu community.

 

you *could* also dive head-first into arch, and potentially hit a brick wall on the way down, but you might get a nack for it, and then its very easy to start liking the amount of control you get.

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generally when working with large amounts of data and/or extensive use of scripts its very nice to have the OS have as little overhead as possible, to have more resources available for the actual work.

 

if getting rid of the GUI saves you a gigabyte of ram, its very much recommended to do so, because thats a whole extra gig for your scripts to nibble on.

[Pofi]

I'm about 99.9999% certain that ram won't ever be an issue here - the data is kept off of ram as much as possible - the second some value that i need is acquired - it will be stored in the database. Since many scripts can be ran at once - I want all of them to have an always up-to-date database to use, so they don't keep any information in ram for too long. AND they only grab up to 1mb of data at a time (i would imagine it's actually even less).  As such I'd love an OS that has the least amount of overhead associated with read/write from/to the SSDs.

 

Which actually brings me to another topic that I forgot to mention originally - there should be 3 SSDs in raid 5 array, so would you recommend having the raid be done on the motherboard or the OS.

 

As for not having GUI  - it's still a debate for me - it has it's solid benefits, but I'm pretty new to terminals and the person doing all the node.js stuff has never used terminals, so it will all depend on whether we get used to not having a GUI in the time that we'll have access to the machine.

[manikyath]

I'm about 99.9999% certain that ram won't ever be an issue here - the data is kept off of ram as much as possible - the second some value that i need is acquired - it will be stored in the database. Since many scripts can be ran at once - I want all of them to have an always up-to-date database to use, so they don't keep any information in ram for too long. AND they only grab up to 1mb of data at a time (i would imagine it's actually even less).  As such I'd love an OS that has the least amount of overhead associated with read/write from/to the SSDs.

 

Which actually brings me to another topic that I forgot to mention originally - there should be 3 SSDs in raid 5 array, so would you recommend having the raid be done on the motherboard or the OS.

 

As for not having GUI  - it's still a debate for me - it has it's solid benefits, but I'm pretty new to terminals and the person doing all the node.js stuff has never used terminals, so it will all depend on whether we get used to not having a GUI in the time that we'll have access to the machine.

raid 5 should *always* be done on hardware, with a decent raid controller that has a battery backup, especially when dealing with important data.

other than that, i'm pretty sure most of the storage accessing is on kernel level, so it wont change between distros.

 

picking a distro is like picking a flavor of ice cream. none is better than others, its just which one you like to eat the most.

[Pofi]

Well, all storage interaction has to go through the OS, since script can't directly interact with the kernel, so if it has tons of permission checks or whatnot it would slow everything down, so I'm assuming there must be at least some difference there between distros. As for raid - guess i'll go grab a raid controller. Thanks!