Managing bootup services on Linux servers

Question: Which Linux services should be enabled at boot on a server?

Answer: Most Linux distributions come with more than what you need. They are designed to not only work on servers but also desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, and in some cases, even smaller mobile devices like phones. Because of this there are sometimes numerous services running that you may not need. Similarly, there might be special server-oriented services that you will want to enable.

Security is also an issue. In the past we covered X.org and why it is a bad idea to have it running on a server. There are other services like X.org that might be good for the desktop but are superfluous on a server. The first thing to do is to find out which services are currently running. Execute the following commands:

#service --status-all
#chkconfig --list | grep '3:on'

You can read the rest of the steps in tis process at nixCraft. Everything in the complete how-to article will cover CentOS, Fedora, and Redhat Enterprise Linux.

Source: nixCraft