| | We host multiple web sites that require SSL and therefore we need a dedicated IP address per URL. HTTP requests go to one of two Domino servers configured with multiple IP addresses. With SSL, every host name needs it's own address. This has to do with the SSL protocol - the server needs to send the certificate before the browser sends the header information (host name is in header). So the server only knows the IP address. Anyway, this part is tested and the Domino server handles the sites very well.
We started with openSUSE 11.0 back in 2008 and just upgraded to the 11.3 version. We already use SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for the Domino Servers and OpenSuSE is very similar, that's a bonus.
Update April 2009: Still running the same version and not a single issue. A few weeks ago, we made some changes to the server and domain names. About every 2 months we power down all servers, routers and hubs. We make sure that important patches are applied and that's it. We also run WireShark and nmap to monitor the network and servers and all looks peaceful. Well, not counting the several thousand spam messages that hit our SMTP server every single day. The Domino spam filter settings block most of them and the few that are left are correctly discarded by spamJam from Granite Software.
Update November 2010: Downloaded SUSE 11.3 and everything went ok. Not many changes with the Text Only Server installation or the firewall.
Update May 2011: Up to today, we had no problems with the firewall. So it is time to make changes again!! I'm adding the DHCP and DNS to the firewall. Still using SUSE 11.3, even so there seems to be a problem with the DNS configuration. As always, we're doing a clean install on a new box. If we run into problems, we can always switch to the old box.
And one more update, we just downloaded openSUSE 11.4 and did a quick test install. The steps are the same from what we can tell. There may be some issues with the DHCP server on 11.3, but for our basic needs it doesn't apply. These issues may be solved in 11.4, but please consult the official documentation. For now, we have no plans to install the 11.4 version on the production box.
Continue with the installation checklist on the openSUSE 11.3 installation.
First published on September 25, 2008
Last revised on May 16, 2011 |