Hi all,
I first tried BOA with Ubuntu 12.04 but I have since heard that Ubuntu patches can cause problems for BOA and I think that the current stable barracuda does not work with Ubuntu (in my case gives problems with mysql and nginx for example https://drupal.org/node/2119539). So should I think about starting again with Debian?
If so https://drupal.org/project/barracuda says that the current recommendation is Debian 6.0 Squeeze but should I choose Debian 7.0 Wheezy on the basis that this is due to take over recommended status?
Also any views please on 32 bit vs 64 bit (for currently 2GB RAM but I don't know about the future) - I have read different things for example
1) there is no benefit in 64 bit unless you are using more than 4GB RAM so use 32 bit unless you are are using now or intend to use more than 4GB RAM
vs
2) 32 bit uses slightly less RAM but you will hardly notice the difference - so just use 64 bit.
Thanks...
Comments
It's not just memory, it's
It's not just memory, it's integers too. I had a major issue caused by 32-bit PHP running out of integers generated by auto-increment columns in a (64-bit) MySQL database - it's easy to do, just make 200 million rows on a system with a replication step of 10 and voila, you're out of 32-bit signed ints... It cost me a major client. 64-bit processing can also be faster as you can potentially handle twice as much data per clock cycle - this is good for things like video streaming, but can just add overhead if everything you're doing fits into 32 bits anyway. But I'm never using 32-bit again…
The compatiblity of BOA with different platforms is one of its trade-offs: monolithic scripts are easy to write, but are difficult to make flexible without them getting huge. More flexible and robust solutions can be built using tools like Chef, but they are much more complex, especially if you're starting from scratch.
@ Synchro thanks for your
@ Synchro thanks for your reply. When you say "64-bit processing ...can just add overhead if everything you're doing fits into 32 bits anyway" I think "overhead" here means that 64 bit uses slightly more RAM and hard disk space than 32 bit but I read somewhere that this difference is hardly noticeable - so I am leaning to 64 bit.
Re BOA I would not mind if Debian was a requirement but based on my recent trouble with Ubuntu 12.04 (and I am not sure how unexpected / surprising that was) I think that https://drupal.org/project/barracuda saying Debian is "recommended" is a bit vague and it could be more strongly worded along the lines of "you should use Debian unless you have a really good reason not to and if you use Ubuntu you should expect downtime caused by mysql and nginx issues".
Anyway can anyone comment on the significance of Debian 6 vs Debian 7 and is there any ETA for Debian 7 replacing Debian 6 for recommended status?
Thanks...
is there any ETA for Debian 7
This is one of the differences between Debian and Ubuntu; Ubuntu has a predictable release schedule. Most major Ubuntu packages are based on upstream Debian ones, so I wouldn't expect major differences anyway. Just be thankful it's not using RHEL.