[nzlug] CentOS and the "joys" of rpm based systems

[Nevyn]

Hi,

If you'll recall a few months ago I was talking about reinstalling my
server and doing fun things like playing with Xen to compartmentalize
functionality into separate vm's.

I was looking to use Ubuntu but concluded that it simply wasn't mature
enough with it's xen tools and doing things on it was sort of like
pulling teeth. I seem to remember that someone suggest CentOS as a
viable alternative.

So I recently downloaded a copy of CentOS 5 and installed it onto a vm
(using VMware Server). It's installed and I've gotten over the first
hurdle - the network just refused to work. Now my second hurdle, which
is about me more than CentOS.

My first problem is the tools. I am so used to Ubuntu and Debian that
I'm feeling quite lost. Commands like ifconfig and apt-get just aren't
there.

Sure I could use yum rather than apt-get but I've always hated yum.
I'm used to apt, so would love to get this going. Simple enough in
other versions of CentOS - it seems you could just type in "yum
install apt" in past versions of CentOS but it's just not working
here.. No such package. Which makes me wonder if there's supposed to
be a repository added in order to make this work.

As for ifconfig, I have no idea what the equivalent in Redhat based
systems is. Any clues anyone? I'm mithed that I can't figure out my ip
address from the machine itself - I'm instead having to go to my dhcp
server to figure out which ip address it's got. I suppose this is a
low priority seeing as it's probably going to change to a static IP
anyway.

Is anyone here able to help?

Regards,
Lost and Confused (Nevyn)