So now even my company webserver is on Ubuntu
We’ve used IIS at work for years. About every 2 years something crashes and I wind up having to rebuild the server software. This is either because of hardware failures or corrupted Windows components and although with enough research I could usually fix the problem I’ve found it is often easier to reinstall the whole server.
Well, the last time this happened was a little over 2 years ago when I was working off-site. Someone else did the server install for me and I finished all the configuration. At the time he upgraded it to Windows Server 2003 which he indicated he received legally through the campus IT department.
So anyway, the windows updates the other night killed something again. After updating all pages were receiving a generic 404 error even though not only were the pages there, their was also a custom 404 error in place. So I started troubleshooting and went as far as deleting and recreating the Websites in IIS. Still nothing worked. Every page still reported a 404 error. I tried restoring a backup then found out the backup media couldn’t be read after the updates. In all I spent a good 3 hours trying different tricks and nothing worked.
So OK, I’ll just reinstall, no big deal. Other than a mod-rewrite application, PHP, and MySQL there wasn’t a whole lot more I would need to install. I got out the old OS CD and noticed it was cracked (we had moved offices about 2 years ago and a few software folders had been rather abused). Uh oh. Well, no big deal, I’ll get in touch with campus IT and get fresh media. So I called and was told that 2003 was never licensed for department use and we would need to buy another copy. Instead an MCSE friend tried to help troubleshoot the server but that attempt also resulted in utter failure. Something was really messed up.
Before I continue I must admit I realize it is common practice by many to prevent security updates from automatically installing on production servers. However as the server is for Internet use and is open to the world this is one such practice I can’t go without. Besides, there is something inherently wrong when security updates can corrupt the server in the first place.
Now I was screwed. I needed to get the site back up and our budget crunch was going to make a fresh copy of windows server a hard sell. So I decided I would give Ubuntu server a try instead. After all, our sites required only PHP, MySQL, and mod-rewrite and the latter had been hacked into IIS to work. Why not give LAMP a try.
It took a few hours and some help from a friend to get everything right, but it’s all back up and running and faster than ever. Interestingly enough the Ubuntu server had no problems reading the Windows backup either. HAHA. Figures.
So now the only computer I have left on Windows is our file server and even that might still be switched over one of these days. I just can’t believe I hadn’t done this earlier! I guess there can be benefits to the whole trial-by-fire scenario.
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