Help installing web / file server

I am looking for assistance / advice on building a web / file server. I have been playing with FreeBSD 8.2 and 9. I am willing to go either way so long as there will be a way to keep the system stable when going from 9 RC3 to the final release. I will let the pro’s here lead me down the right path.

The server has a mirror raid1 with 74G SCSI drives and 4 GB of RAM. The data drive for the web / file server will be a SATA 1T drive. The web server / file server drive will be a 1T drive. The network is two 1 Gbit network cards (em0 and em1).

I would also like to have the server be the LAN / WAN firewall. I have been using pfSense on a separate box but would like to consolidate to one box yet the pfSense forums inform me that there is no package install for what I would like to do.

My problem is that once I install the basic FreeBSD (8 or 9), I do not know what order to install the needed packages. Or a doc that explains the order because I cannot locate one.
Firewall, dynamic IP (zoneedit), dns, dhcp, php5, mysql, etc…

Thanks for the time.
 
The order is not important. If you install something that depends on something else it'll be automatically installed. Just install one thing, configure it, test it and move to the next thing.

You'll also find a lot of information in the handbook: Chapter 29 Network Servers
 
Thanks for the info.
Any sugestions on what slices / directories I should put where?
Boot drive
1T Sata data drive
thanks again....
 
Hi

You should look at ZFS file system which is better than UFS. ZFS doesn't need any slices, but only one partition. All you need to do is to plan and create system layout, after that you have to install base system as usual.

As while as you have one partition, you don't need to take care about size. In case of slices you have to plan which part of slice would be your storage data.

So, you are free to choose what you need. Ofcourse, in case of ZFS you have to read how to use, but almost data is available. FreeBSD 9 Beta 1 comes with new boot loader gptzfsboot, so it is easier to test it (also supporting ZFS is better than 8.2), but for server I would suggests 8.2, because 9 is still in development stage what you should keep in mind before deciding.
 
thanks for the ZFS info and I will downloaod the info on it.

The plan is to have 3 area's on the Data (1T SATA) drive.
Music
MythTV
Apps (I have Windows systems I need to support and install applications from this machine)

Besides those 3, whatever is recommended is the route I plan to take.

Thanks again and as always, I look forward to suggestions.
 
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