CentOS 5.8 or 6.2?

[Rob]

If you were setting up a new server for hosting (LAMP) - would you use the latest CentOS 5 or 6? There are a number of people keeping with 5.. are you one of them? Why?

[berks]

I recently setup a server with CentOS 5.8, my main choice at that point was due to the fact that 5.8 has LTS, while 6.2 does not. After using it for about a week however I upgraded to CentOS 6.2 mainly due to the fact that 5.8 came with php version 5.1 with fixes from later updates integrated into it.

For me this was an issue due to the fact that I was running a WordPress powered website and the latest version of WordPress requires php 5.2 or later.

[DaReaper]

I wouldn't upgrade to CentOS 6 yet because i fear that some of the applications might not be compatible with it yet. It's not the OS's problem, but it's the software companies that have to make their software compatible with it.

Also i think it would be best to have a fresh installation of CentOS6 instead of upgrading it. I also need to know what modules and stuff that worked in Cent OS 5.8, would work in CentOS6. This might include MySQL, PHP, ioncube or any other.

[grim76]

I think 6.x has been out long enough to be considered. Especially on a hosting front where people want the latest and greatest of X CMS, Wordpress, or new widget.

[berks]

I wouldn't upgrade to CentOS 6 yet because i fear that some of the applications might not be compatible with it yet. It's not the OS's problem, but it's the software companies that have to make their software compatible with it.

Also i think it would be best to have a fresh installation of CentOS6 instead of upgrading it. I also need to know what modules and stuff that worked in Cent OS 5.8, would work in CentOS6. This might include MySQL, PHP, ioncube or any other.

IMO it worked relatively okay, given it wasn't a professional setup but I had the complete LAMP server running with Virtualmin (I did a fresh Install). I am not sure just how hard it would be to upgrade from 5.x to 6.x but I don't foresee any great problems in doing so.

[DaReaper]

IMO it worked relatively okay, given it wasn't a professional setup but I had the complete LAMP server running with Virtualmin (I did a fresh Install). I am not sure just how hard it would be to upgrade from 5.x to 6.x but I don't foresee any great problems in doing so.

Well, the reason i was worried about upgrading was this : http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/MigrationGuide

"A fresh install is generally strongly preferred over an upgrade."

And also, recently i tried to update Ubuntu directly from 11 to 12.04, i saw that the process and RAM usage was incredibly high and the Ubuntu classic mode failed to work.

Do you know the reason why it's recommended as so?

[berks]

I had read a bit about the possible problems, a in-place upgrade from 5.x to 6.x is really not supported. What I had in mind was to create a backup of any existing systems, do a fresh install of 6.x and then transfer back the data checking for any errors.

[grim76]

RHEL and clones typically going from 5.0 to 5.8 is automatic and encouraged. Upgrading full versions is not. They do recommend an actual full fresh install rather than trying to upgrade from 5.x to 6.x.

I am sure you can do the upgrade manually, but I don't think the effort involved would be worth it. Even when I was running Ubuntu <shudder> I still did full installs rather than upgrades.

[berks]

I understand the risk (or at least I think I do) involved in upgrading major versions but I think we have gotten a bit sidetracked. The OP asked what version of the OS we would use in setting up a new server, presumably that server would not have a OS or any important data loaded on it.

It has been proven that 6.x is stable in a server environment, it has also been proven that the PHP limitations of 5.x can cause issues. To avoid these issues altogether, as well as avoiding possibly loosing data in the future attempting an upgrade loading 6.x from start would be the better option . I am yet to see valid reason to use 5.x other than the fact that it boasts LTS.

[makentosh]

I would suggest CentOS 5 since it is the stable version I should say, in which software packages are mostly supported with it. CentOS 6 has been out for a while, so to say most administrators would prefer CentOS 5 since it is proven and has been tested for a while.