BlueQuartz on CentOS

I have hosted web pages on the net since its conception. My first web servers ran on digital 128K connection and have expanded ever since to gigabit Fiber nationwide with redundant power, hardware and backbones.

I will be writing on my experiences on BQ on CentOS from a providers point of view.

Blue Quartz?

It all started when Cobalt Networks released its first 1 U complete hosting solution. Being one of the largest central Texas developers at the time, we became a Cobalt dealer, and moved hosting to it's platform.

Since those days , allot has happened. Cobalt sold to Sun who end of lifed but released the source code of the Cobalt OS. We built hundreds of different hosting solutions, and came news of OS's that will run on PC and looks and feels just like latest Cobalt OS.

Before we get started ( see next post) lets go over a few things that I think hampered the results. First do your research and development behind a firewall. Why ? Once you jump live onto the net your PC or box as we call them, can and will get taken over in a matter of weeks.

After trying several OS's one thing was centrain that each OS was dependant on security risks from PHP, MySQL, SSH, Bind, and on and on. Once a security risk apears anywhere in the "open source culture" you can expect it to be exploited to its fullest. The newer the network may buy you time, but once you start announcing traffic to the server, you better have it tighened down beast first.

The best free firewall I played with on CentOS was IPtables. if your remote be sure to add your SSH ports before activating the firewall rules and cutting off your connection.

Blue Quartz
Download BlueQuartz
CentOS
IPTables

As aways back up any data you want before playing with any new package. I recommend installing blue quartz on a least a 1 ghz PC with 40 gig hard drive, half a gig of ram with CDROM. 10/100 megabit ethernet card a must.

Dowload Cd from link above. RTFM. I can not emphasis the importance of reading the manual.
Boot from CD and OS will wipe off HD and setup CentOS, PHP, MySQL, Bind, Sendmail and then install Blue Quartz on top of it all. WARNING. OS load will wipe all existing data off drive.