Restarting Linux
Restarting Linux
Hia, I bought and fixed a server a few weeks ago, installed some new hardware and the newest version of Linux Mint. I've been messing around with different software solutions for what I wanna do and I finally have everything planned. The problem is, now I've got a very messy server with lots of different crap on it and I wanna wipe it completely. There is one SSD (with OS) and two HDD's (formatted with ZFS) in the machine and I wanna wipe everything, the ZFS formatting, all files and start all new. How would I best go about doing that? Cheers
For planning a server setup, I’d consider CentOS, Fedora Server, or Ubuntu Server first. None of these come with a desktop environment by default, so you’d need to add one yourself. I wouldn’t recommend Mint. If your needs involve email or web hosting, centos-webpanel is a good option. For a fresh start, download an ISO and use Etcher to burn it. Perform a clean installation as usual. Arch is the only distro I’m familiar with that can run from a minimal base and be reset quickly.
Most installers for Windows or Linux allow you to erase partitions and set up fresh ones. You might also try booting from a Linux live USB and using software such as GParted to clear partitions before installing a new operating system.
Servers perform more efficiently without a graphical interface. I run Fedora Server at my residence, though any lightweight Linux distribution tailored for servers works well. Windows isn't ideal for server use unless you're deploying Windows Server, which is still producing poor results. For file storage setups, consider FreeNAS (using BSD instead of Linux) or configure a RAID-1 with two high-density drives and install a server-optimized Linux distribution.
Use lsblk to check how storage devices are identified and labeled. Run commands with dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX, setting speed and options for efficiency. This method is slower yet faster than DBAN.