Lightweight, Secure Public Web Server?

Question

I have a Pentium II 450MHZ, 385MB RAM, 200GB HD, and Windows XP Professional SP3 as the host O/S. It is running VMware Server, so I do not have to use multiple machines performing separate operations. Yes, it is moderately slow, but it's sufficient for what I do.

Here's the question, what would be a good lightweight, secure linux server operating system, that can be used for Apache, PHP, and MySQL. I also would like to run SSH so I can remotely administer the system. I've heard good things about OpenBSD, but I do not know the minimum requirements. I'm trying to keep memory usage under 96mb. I do not need a GUI, as I am fine with using SSH.

My system is fine for my needs, but I would like to minimize the usage of the public web server. It only needs to perform a function as a website where my friends and family can contribute to a family blog.

In am using Ubuntu as a O/S for web development testing, but it's internal so security is not as important.

Thanks,

Ryan Leaf

Answer 1

Hi Ryan,

Interesting that you should ask such a question as I have been recently researching the same thing.

I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing but I must admit that I have a bias towards FreeBSD when it comes to web hosting, development, and optimizing low-end hardware.

With that being said, I can tell you that I have not been dissapointed with my research. Before I go any further, let me just tell you that I did find a few articles regarding small optimized Ubuntu and Fedora installs. I have no problem with those distros (in fact I host about the same amount of high traffic production sites on Fedora and FreeBSD) but I didn't look further into those (Ubunto and Fedora) after finding out that this was possible with FreeBSD (not just possible but proven).

Here are the facts that I know about so far:

1. During the FreeBSD install, you can choose the "minimal install" which should get you to where you want to be. If you need more applications just use the "ports" collection. See the first four links below for reference.

The FreeBSD installation notes (for version 6.3) states that one needs at least 24 MB of RAM and at least 150MB of free hard drive space for the most minimal installation.

2. There seems to be a freely available FreeBSD Virtual Appliance for VMWare. See the 5th link for this.

3. There is a "miniBSD" project which aims to (in its own words): "provide a set of scripts that collects the necessary binaries, libs, config files and finally creates the disk image that can be dumped on a CF card or USB pen." See last two links for more on this.

Hopefully that will get you started on the right track. Also, I've not used OpenBSD but I hear it is generally one of the more secure distros right out of the box which generally leads me to believe it would run light. Again, I don't know about that one personally but worth a look.