I just ordered a dual xeon 2.8 (2gb ram, RHEL v4) which I am going to use to do some game server hosting. Mainly I plan to run coutner strike 1.6 to start. I am going to need apache and mysql but only for some light web page serving.

I'd like to optimize the OS and software running (or that can be turned off) to get the best performance. I was wondering what tips you can offer especially when targeting it towards game hosting. I am not great with linux but I do know my way around. I am a programmer and can usually figure out what I need to do. Things like recompiling the kernal scare me though so I will probably shy away from that at this time haha. However, if it is highly recommended please let me know.

Thanks for your time!

Does it have a control panel?

No, didn't want anything extra.

Well thats a pretty good start then.

Generally for the most part linux servers don't have many services running that you don't need.

You could do a "ps -awx" and post the results here to see whats running, and can be killed.

Just got my server setup. Here you go:

PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
1 ? S 0:01 init [3]
2 ? S 0:00 [migration/0]
3 ? SN 0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
4 ? S 0:00 [migration/1]
5 ? SN 0:00 [ksoftirqd/1]
6 ? S 0:00 [migration/2]
7 ? SN 0:00 [ksoftirqd/2]
8 ? S 0:00 [migration/3]
9 ? SN 0:00 [ksoftirqd/3]
10 ? S< 0:00 [events/0]
11 ? S< 0:00 [events/1]
12 ? S< 0:00 [events/2]
13 ? S< 0:00 [events/3]
14 ? S< 0:00 [khelper]
15 ? S< 0:00 [kacpid]
42 ? S< 0:00 [kblockd/0]
43 ? S< 0:00 [kblockd/1]
44 ? S< 0:00 [kblockd/2]
45 ? S< 0:00 [kblockd/3]
46 ? S 0:00 [khubd]
63 ? S 0:00 [pdflush]
64 ? S 0:00 [pdflush]
65 ? S 0:00 [kswapd0]
66 ? S< 0:00 [aio/0]
67 ? S< 0:00 [aio/1]
68 ? S< 0:00 [aio/2]
69 ? S< 0:00 [aio/3]
213 ? S 0:00 [kseriod]
451 ? S< 0:00 [ata/0]
452 ? S< 0:00 [ata/1]
453 ? S< 0:00 [ata/2]
454 ? S< 0:00 [ata/3]
455 ? S< 0:00 [ata_aux]
461 ? S 0:00 [scsi_eh_0]
462 ? S 0:00 [scsi_eh_1]
493 ? S 0:00 [kjournald]
1099 ? S< 0:00 [kauditd]
1762 ? S<s 0:00 udevd
2579 ? S 0:00 [kjournald]
3396 ? Ss 0:00 syslogd -m 0
3400 ? Ss 0:00 klogd -x
3413 ? Ss 0:00 irqbalance
3431 ? Ss 0:00 portmap
3450 ? Ss 0:00 rpc.statd
3481 ? Ss 0:00 rpc.idmapd
3551 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/smartd
3560 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/acpid
3569 ? Ss 0:00 cupsd
3652 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
3677 ? Ss 0:00 xinetd -stayalive -pidfile /var/run/xinetd.pid
3695 ? Ss 0:00 sendmail: accepting connections
3705 ? Ss 0:00 sendmail: Queue runner@01:00:00 for /var/spool/clientmqueue
3715 ? Ss 0:00 gpm -m /dev/input/mice -t imps2
3745 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/htt -retryonerror 0
3746 ? S 0:00 htt_server -nodaemon
3757 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/cannaserver -syslog -u canna
3768 ? Ss 0:00 crond
3795 ? Ss 0:00 xfs -droppriv -daemon
3812 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
3821 ? Ssl 0:00 dbus-daemon-1 --system
3832 ? Ss 0:00 rhnsd --interval 240
3841 ? Ss 0:00 hald
3885 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/bin/perl /usr/local/bin/ipalert_statd
3892 tty1 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty1
3893 tty2 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty2
3894 tty3 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty3
3895 tty4 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty4
3896 tty5 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty5
3898 tty6 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty6
3899 ttyS0 Ss+ 0:00 /sbin/agetty -L 9600 ttyS0 vt100
21197 ? Ss 0:00 sshd: root@pts/0
21199 pts/0 Ss 0:00 -bash
21242 pts/0 R+ 0:00 ps -awx

To me, that actually looks pretty clean.

Yes, very clean.