Is arch ready for server deployments?

Question

Well, tittle says it all, say I want to deploy a samba server on a corporate environment, is arch suitable for this? I mean, how stable is it for this kind of stuff? being a rolling release my guess is that it isnt, correct me if im wrong.
just want to hear your opinions and past experiences
regards

Answer 1

The thing with servers in big, corporate environments is that you're usually supposed to avoid putting them through constant updates, as with every update there's a chance that something could break.  If you do decide to go with Arch, I might recommend  having a "test" server, which is basically on a mini simulated network (say, some VMs or something), which gets updates daily or weekly, which you develop a series of stress-tests for.  After every update cycle it goes through, test everything that people are supposed to use the server for.  If everything seems to be in order, you can update the main server, _BUT_ be prepared to backtrack in case things go wrong.
It might be better to go with Debian or Slackware or CentOS, though, if you're worried that an update might break something.  Not to say that updates won't break things there, either, but the updates there are typically slower, and supposedly more tested.
But even if you go with one of those, I'd still recommend a test server.  I'm serious.  All the cool kids are doing it.