Table of Contents

RedHat Services

A list of System Services on RHEL will differ from system to system, depending on what software (services) are installed.

From an initial RHEL install, certain Services will need to be switched on or switched off, as the default set would not apply to a Meteor server. Other services need be be altered depending on the functional requirements for the build.

Services Required

acpid This is the daemon for the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI). ACPI is an open industry standard for system control related actions, most notably plug-and-play hardware recognition and power management, such as startup and shutdown and putting systems into low power consumption modes. You will probably never want to shut down this daemon, unless you are explicitly instructed to do so to debug a hardware problem
anacron This runs cron jobs that were scheduled to run when the system was down. Safe to disable, unless you had a cron job that makes backups at times the system was down
auditd The Linux Auditing System provides kernel-resident logging of system calls and user space tools to collect and view the logs. The auditd daemon writes the logging records to disk. auditd is configurable to allow control over what information is written to the logs
crond This daemon automates the running of tasks. These jobs are necessary for any Linux or Unix system. Do not stop or disable this one
haldaemon The HAL daemon collects this information about hardware devices from the kernel and the hardware and makes it available in a consistent manner. Do not turn off this daemon. Multiple applications rely on it
inetd/xinetd Both of these are importand services. Do not turn off
irqbalance You need not run this daemon on single processor systems, as it only has an effect on multiple-processor systems. Red Hat Kbase articles1 indicate that irqbalance is relevant on x86, x86_64, and AMD systems
network ?
ntp/ntpd Used for syncing time across a network
sendmail/smtpd For use if your machine is a mail server. If not, it will mostly handle log alerts and other similar activities
snmpd/snmptrapd Simple Network Management Protocol
sshd Allow remote users to log onto your computer
syslog Keep this on. It logs your system activities
sysstat ?

Services Not Required

apmd Advanced power management daemon. Usefull on a laptop, disable it on a Server
arptables_jf The arptables_jf utility controls the arpfilter network packet filtering code in the Linux kernel. You do not need this program for normal network firewalling. If you need to manually control which arp requests and/or replies this machine accepts and sends, you should use this service.
atd Controls the at command, which is used to schedule commands. Unless you use the at command, you can turn it off
autofs autofs is usually used for mounting network shares. Could be disabled for desktop systems
avahi-daemon/avahi-dnsconfd A system which facilitates service discovery on a local network. This means that you can plug your laptop or computer into a network and instantly be able to view other people who you can chat with, find printers to print to, or find files being shared
arpwatch Arpwatch is a tool that monitors ethernet or fddi activity and maintain a database of ethernet/ip address pairings. You can probably disable it
bluetooth/hidd Do you want bluetooth on when you turn on your computer?
conman The conman service supports console management. This supports multiple console devices and simultaneous users. It supports local serial devices and remote terminal servers (via the telnet protocol). If you are managing multiple servers, you may want to run conman
cpuspeed CPUSpeed for Linux adjusts the CPU speed dynamically based on the demand for processing power. Disable it unless you are using a laptop
cups/cups-config-daemon Printing Services, normally not used
dhcdbd The dhcdbd daemon provides a D-Bus interface to dhclient, the DHCP client from ISC. This makes it possible for NetworkManager can to query and control dhclient
gpm Lets you use the mouse in text-only console. Leave it off If you never leave X window system
iptables/ip6tables iptables is part of the Linux Firewall, normally not used here
irda Infra Red Data Association. Unless you are doing IR, you don't need this
isdn ISDN deamon for ISDN connections. Not needed unless you connect to the net through ISDN
lm_sensors Sensors used for monitoring motherboard sensor values. Unless your mother board has sensors to measure it's temperature, and other stuff you would like to know, this can be turned off
mcstrans SELinux Context Translation System Daemon
microcode_ctl script to apply cpu microcode
netplugd This daemon configures Ethernet devices when cables are plugged in and deconfigure them when the cables are removes. Why would you want this to happen? It makes sense for laptops so that your network connections are only brought up when their cables are attached
NetworkManager/NetworkManagerDispatcher The NetworkManager daemon automates switching between network connections. This is a useful daemon for laptop users who switch between wireless WiFi connections and Ethernet connections
netfs Mounts/Unmounts all Network File Systems, Samba pount points. Not needed if you don't need to automount remote File Systems
nfs/nfslock/portmap This is the server functionality for file sharing across TCP/IP networks
openibd Infiniband based Networking?
pcmcia PCMCIA is to support ethernet and modems in laptops. You can switch it off in servers
pcscd PC/SC Smart Card Daemon enables communications with smart card readers and smart cards
rawdevices This service is mainly deprecated now. But may be useful in certain circumstances for use with applications like Oracle, that need to use it for access to raw devices for storage.
selinux/restorecond Security Enhanced Linux, normally not used here
settroubleshoot SELinux Troubleshooting Daemon, normally not used here
readahead_early/readahead_later The readahead daemon causes the programs used during startup to be loaded into memory before they are needed, to improve startup performance
rhnsd The RedHat network. Not needed if you use yum for all your updates
rhsmcertd The Red Hat Subscription Manager
rpcgssd/rpcidmapd/rpcsvcgssd These are Network File System Daemons. If You do not use NFS, turn it off
saslauthd This is the SASL authentication server daemon. SASL is the Simple Authentication and Security Layer and allows for adding authentication to connection-based protocols
smartd This daemon monitors the SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) systems included in many types of disk drives, such as SCSI-3 type drives. The daemon will monitor reliability and performs self-tests. You should run this daemon if your hardware supports it
smb/smbd/nmbd/winbind For use if you want to network your linux box with a windows machine, and have the linux box appear in the 'network neighborhood'
squid Use this to become a sort of cache for internet requests from your local network. Unless internet requests go through you, this can be disabled
xfs This damon is the xfs font server. This daemon loads fonts into memory to enable X applications to run faster than if they had to load the fonts from disk. This daemon is worth running to improve application performance. You may also need it if you want to start INIT Level 5, as X11 need it running to startup.
ypbind This daemon binds NIS clients to an NIS domian. The yp refers to yellow pages, as the NIS directory of user accounts acts like the telephone book yellow pages. You only want to run this daemon if your system relies on NIS (Network Information Service) for user accounts and system names
yum-updatesd yum-updatesd checks for software updates and can send notifications of these updates via mail, dbus, or syslog messages, or can automatically install the updates. The dbus messages are picked up by the puplet (package updater), which notifies the user of the updates and lets the user install them

Services Optional

httpd Makes your computer a webserver. Unless you have a webpage you are hosting, this can be turned Off
kuzdu This is a very useful daemon. At boot time, it detects if hardware devices have been added to or removed from the the system. It is worthwhile to run kudzu at boot time, even if you do not plan on adding or removing hardware often. You might run into a situation where you add a device and just assume that the system will figure out that it is there. Also, since kudzu only runs at boot time, and does not stay running, there is no performance hit on the system
messagebus This is the D-BUS system-wide message bus daemon. This daemon broadcasts notifications of system events and such as changes in the printer queue or the adding and removing of devices. (Note that this is not the same operation as Kudzu, as it can take place while the system is running and not only at boot time)
mdmonitor/mpmpd The mdadm package includes software used to create, manage, and monitor software RAID volumes
named Named is a Domain Name Server. You don't need it unless you are acting as a DNS server