Building My First RedHat Linux server

Any tips?

[IanTurner]

I am building my first RedHat Linux server to run as a test webserver what should I know? I have basic Unix skills but no in depth knowledge.

[marcs]

The install itself should be easy enough, probably easier than you expected.

Due to this, it is hard to offer any type of suggestions. Once you have it installed and get stuck on a specific issue, I'm sure you'll find great help here, as you surely know.

[IanTurner]

It was a lot easier than I expected and RedHat is a lot more user friendly than I thought it would be.

[mack]

The modern linux distros are coming on in leaps and bounds. A few weeks ago I installed windows xp and linux on seperate systems. The linux install was just as easy as XP and a lot faster.

Mack.

[Romeo]

yes, the out-of-the-box installs are easy.
You then should do some security fine tuning and disable all services which may have been installed but are not required for your operation. Set up a firewall to protect internal services like mySQL from outside.
Need a shell login: use ssh and disable telnet.
Disable direct root login: always login as user and perform temporary root actions by using su and sudo.
Need file transfer: put FTP in a chroot environment, disable anonymous login, think about rsync as a replacement.
Read about vulnerability alerts and apply security-relevant update patches to your system.
And then ... enjoy.

Regards,
R.