Ubuntu vs Debian (sever side)

The situation

For a while now I have been considering changing from using Ubuntu server, whilst Ubuntu server does provide great support with updates.

Distribution upgrades are known to fail with Ubuntu and with a cycle of 2 distribution releases per year, it is not that feasible to be able to be upgrading by installing from scratch all the time.

Ubuntu does offer some other advantages such as a GUI  (gufw) for iptables which is not outdated and a pretty good community of support.

Why Debian?

The idea of using debian is centered around stability with updates. Distribution upgrades with Debian are known to work, distribution releases tend to have a much longer cycle than other linux distributions but at the same time it takes a lot longer too.

It might be argued that openSuse, fedora and arch linux are also known to work with a distribution upgrade. However, both fedora and arch linux tend to be more focused on cutting edge software than stable software and openSuse is no longer being supported by novell which may have a long term negative effect on the linux flavor as a whole.

By the way gentoo is out of the question, because hosting a server with the ability to compile is a bad idea from a security point of view.

So by a process of elimination of “core” linux flavors is the reason for choosing Debian.

How to migrate?

To migrate, I will have to use the backup server (this server only exists just incase the hardware on the existing server fails).

Firstly I will install all pre-existing and required software packages from the exisiting server.

Secondly I will take a dump of the /etc directory on the existing server, as the exisiting server is running ubuntu in theory the configurations should be similar enough to just dump the /etc folder into a debian system.

Finally I’ll transfer the data across.