[lug] Hosting Question

[dio2002 at indra.com]

>>- do you run a separate mail server or on the same box?
>>- do you run a separate dns server or on the same box?
>
> These really depend on what you're doing...  For most people, running DNS
> and mail and web on the same box makes sense.  For our hosting, we
> typically recommend DNS on your machine, but firewalled off so that only
> our DNS server can reach it.  We replicate that out of state, so end users
> don't touch your box, and you don't have to worry about exploits against
> DNS.

i've seen some others on this thread recommend running their dns, email
and webserver under virtual environments on the same box.  the only
virtual server sw i've run in the past is VMWare so i'm not up to speed on
linux virtualization.  in your recomendation above, under your tummy xen
environment are you further virtualizing your DNS, email and or web
servers?

i assume not but am wondering what the real benefit others gain by running
those services virtualized?  i imagine they run in user space so will not
likely crash the system.  it seems like it just adds more complexity and
overhead.  my guess is it provides an extra security sandbox for those
services?

also.  under xen, do you firewall under the xen child or on the parent OS
hosting the xen VPSs?  it seems that the parent really owns the hardware
and the first crack at the packets coming off the interface so that
firewalling would have to take place there versus in the xen child?  but
maybe not. maybe that parent interface is left wideopen and it's up to
each xen host to provide its own iptables.

>>- what distribution you use & possibly why?
>
> We recommend and the vast majority of our clients use CentOS.  It's a
> community rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise, and once you deploy it you are

under your base tummy VPS offering, your disk alotment is 1.5G.  Is it
easy to install CentOS (or any of the other popular distros you recommend)
with all the security and web pkgs you need and leave enough space to run
a handful of websites?  When i say easy, i mean is this going to:

1) require lots of manual compiling and patching to get the base OS up and
running (a crapshoot as to how much space the base will require) and
hopefully have enough space left over or
2) will it be a fairly straightforward install script/gui for the base
minimal system with *known install requirements* + add/update additional
pkgs?

sorry for the ignorance here but my past admin experience has been in
environments where network clients had plenty of disk space and therefore
we had the luxury to install full distros..

finally.. you mentioned that tummy.com was running on your own VPS.  which
package - base, enhanced or premium, under which distro, and how much
space was remained outside of the base OS for websites?

btw, thanks for your informative replies throughout the context of this
entire thread