I hadn’t thought of it, but realized that my dependence on the version 6.x series represents the most time ever on any version of Linux. Like many others, I was using custom kernels and had a list of nifty tweaks and hacks to squeeze the most out of the OS.
Before making the permanent migration, there were four test instances built using VPS and Cloud Instances from a couple providers. Problems with MySQL/MariaDB and understanding the differences of modern versions of Apache and nginx delayed the migration most of this year. The last test actually ran part of my production applications for a day, but ended up being abandoned due to poor response times.
In the end, I simply used an older dedicated blade and installed CentOS7 on it. Some tidbits noticed and done:
- Some things work like Ubuntu, guess RedHat likes Debian too.
- It is more efficient than CentOS 6
- Need to test MariaDB/MySQL configs. I liked the way I was able to drop my custom config file into a directory (which appears to be common), but avoid running your production data until you’ve got it debugged.
- My efforts to go 100% nginx weren’t doable, but liked the benefits of Apache 2.4. Still running nginx on static resources.
- PHP 5.4 for now for compatibility reasons.
- Stuck with Atomic Linux as well, along with epel, and mod_pagespeed.
- Service Management was a learning curve for me, this was something I wished had not changed.
Looking forward to continued utilization of CentOS, even though some of the technology I’m using may be showing it’s age.