technology
Block_Betriebssysteme
Operating Systems
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The Operating System is the foundation of your GIS installation and powers your processing hardware. Whether you want to build geoprocessing capabilities or have to prepare a starship for an epic voyage to the Final Frontier, Mr. Scotty's saying applies: 'the right tool for the right job!'
To address different needs a variety of operating systems is available, each with its particular pros and cons. Just because a package says 'enterprise' does not mean that it is better suited to solve your problem.
Get consultancy on your specific and real needs and build on the experience of similar projects before making a decision based on glossy brochures.
Consider that all components of your anticipated SDI will have to comply to your provider's security policies.
This page collects some of our best practice experiences and resulting recommendations for Server Operating Systems.
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is extremely reliant, secure, highly integrateable and offers best performance, it is the operating system of choice for our SDI implementations.
Supported hardware architectures include:
- x86 compatible (including Pentium® und Athlon™),
- amd64 compatible (including Opteron™, Athlon™64, und EM64T),
- UltraSPARC®,
- IA-64,
- PC-98
- ARM
FreeBSD is derived from UNIX®-Version of the University of California in Berkeley, USA and supported by a large community.
The features FreeBSD supports optimize deployment of the components needed for geospatial processing and integrated Internet or Intranet solutions. The combined potential of a robust and versatile operating system with up-to-date geospatial service architecture components make this the ideal choice for server applications. FreeBSD and sister projects are developed with an Open Source methodology.
Debian
Debian is a reliable and secure distribution offering best performance, and is ideally suited to users who want to build a GNU Linux based spatial data infrastructure. Of all Linux distributions, Debian is considered to be one of the most professional and secure platform by the German State Office for IT Security (BSI).
SuSE and other Commercial Linux Distributions
If requested, we also use other GNU Linux distributions, such as e.g. SuSE. However, these distributions are often geared towards the consumer market and do not provide any advantages with regard to geospatial data processing or web server capabilities. Quite often these actually require additional efforts to configure the installation and add libraries to meet server requirements appropriately.
You should consider whether the price for so called 'enterprise' or 'professional' editions really meets your particular requirements. The bundled support is often limited to standard installation issues and void if the system has been adapted of specific needs.
However, to maintain a homogeneous IT infrastructure or leverage existing know-how, there may well be good reasons to deploy proprietary or more closed platforms.
It all comes back to carefully reviewing your requirements and capabilities and choosing 'the right tool for the right job!'.
Post Scriptum
Operating Systems are fun!
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