Zentyal Server as Drupal host

[gman8321]

I currently work for an organization that uses Windows Servers 2008 R2 for web server functionality such as Drupal hosting and am looking at alternatives to Windows Server. I like Zentyal, I have worked with the Community version off and on for several years. But much of what Zentyal offers in the commercial product appears to be overkill for our needs, plus our tech staff will say that the cost of Zentyal approaches or surpasses our Windows Server licensing cost over a period of two or more years.  Is it feasible to use the Community Edition for a public accessible Drupal web site? Technically it is,  but I would like to better understand any licensing issues that may arise or other issues that may arise. For example, I know that the Community edition doesn't offer the security updates.

[robb]

In my opinion the term 'security updates' is a bit misleading. With the community version you do get all the updates: all Ubuntu updates AND all Zentyal module updates. The big difference is, that upstream updates might break some Zentyal modules.

And here comes the terminology: I would call security updates differently. They are 'secured updates' since Zentyal devs have tested them before releasing them and have secured they don't break any Zentyal modules.

Further: I understand that you like to use Zentyal because the ease of administration. But for a simple webserver, a vanilla Ubuntu LAMP Server install might just be more than enough in your situation.

[half_life]

I am with Robb on this.  Unless you plan to roll out the Zentyal server in its designed role (gateway server)  you are pulling in too much complexity for your desired task.  Look at turnkey linux as an alternative.  They have a turnkey Drupal iso available.

[christian]

+1 with you guys: Zentyal as web server only is not the best choice although it works.

[gman8321]

Thanks for the opinions. I like Zentyal but for my purposes it likely is a bit more than I need.