Migrating to CentOS 4.0
Yesterday, I finished migrating our database server from Fedora Core 3 to CentOS 4.0 . There were two reasons for the migration. One, I didn’t like the idea of having to download a bunch of updates every week. Second, I wanted to test the performance and stability of a Redhat Enterprise Linux server (albeit a recompiled one).
Installation went without a hitch. The only problem I was stuck with was in the Postgresql database. At first, I wasn’t able to get the \l and \du commands to work - I was getting a “pg_catalog… ” error. After much googling and reading of past Redhat/Fedora and Postgresql list posts that I was lead to the suspicion that SELinux might be the culprit. The problem can be solved by disabling SELinux on the Postgresql daemon (SELinux uses targeted policies on Redhat systems, you can still keep it running while disabling the the Postgresql daemon only.)
I recall a report wherein Redhat legal decided to warn the CentOS developers on infringing the Redhat trademarks and I think I’ve figured out why. A default installation of CentOS still shows the “Redhat” labels on the menu entries. Updating the system via yum or up2date will change the “Redhat” texts into “CentOS.”
So far, I’m pretty much happy with CentOS. It feels a lot faster than the previous Fedora set up. There are also some minor configuration differences which make it somehow more secure than Fedora (i.e. the screensaver has password protection).
