I'm lost please help me not to go for centos

fred974

fred974

Hi guys,

I have been trying to learn FreeBSD for a while now and feel like I am going nowhere. ..
Last year, I set on a mission to host my own web/mail server at home as I have all the hardware for it but never really got the basis right… So here I am trying to ask you guys to put me in the right track if you don’t mind.
I want to set a up a reliable web server on my HP DL385 Dual AMD Opteron 2.6GHZ 6GB RAM 2U server. I have 4 x36.4 GB and 1x 300GB SCSI hard drive at my disposal..

My plan is to have my web server setup with FreeBSD 9 and have 3 jails in it for security.

1x for webserver
1x for database
1x for Email Server
1x File server (maybe)
I wanted to have a full Root ZFS system but was advised against it. I also got confuse as to which method to use to create the jail (ezjail,qjail…)

Could you please advise me on?
1. Should I use root ZFS or stick to traditional file system?
2. What method is best for my need to create the jail
3. How can I make the best out of the disks that I have

Sorry If I’m not clear like I say I lost the will to leave… HELP!
 
Why are you so discouraged?
If you don't find FreeBSD eloquent enough then What's wrong in sticking with CentOS?

Regarding your questions:
Should I use root ZFS or stick to traditional file system?
Click to expand...
Stick with UFS so you don't get lost for root file system.
What method is best for my need to create the jail
Click to expand...
Use ezjails
How can I make the best out of the disks that I have
Click to expand...
Just install FreeBSD on first disk, latter on just mount and utilize the disks as you need them on respective file directories.
Consider using ZFS when using File Server or Database server.

Note: These are just my opinions and I don't claim them to be taken them as hardcore facts.
 
I don't do much with jails, but I can recommend a few ports:

For the mail server, look at postfix and dovecot, and for the web server look at apache22. I'm pretty familiar with apache22, and I set up dovecot/postfix once a few years ago, so I'll be happy to answer any questions.
 
I would stick with UFS over ZFS if you are having trouble getting your initial system going. There were a few times at the beginning that I got my self in trouble with ZFS due to not fully understanding it.

However, if you want to utilize all your disks (of different sizes), you will have to either mount them individually or use RAID-0 to stripe the data on all drives, but be warn, that using RAID-0 will mean loosing your entire data set if one drive dies (not recommended).

Use ezjail-admin for creating your jails, the tutorials available online are pretty good.

For your email server, I would recommend mail/postfix. I use the blog post from purplehat.org as my reference every time I create a new email server.

For your web server, you can use www/apache22 or my preferred one www/nginx.
 
I'm using a very similar setup to yours right now. I have web, email and database servers running on zfs-based jails with a ZFS root filesystem. I use stock jails, and create new ones by cloning a master ZFS snapshot. I haven't had any issues using root ZFS, and it was relatively easy to set up, but I agree that it might be an area of unnecessary overhead if you're not comfortable with the process. Probably best to keep it simple for a first go.

As for the actual jail system, it's a variation of the process outlined in the handbook at:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/jails-application.html

The difference is in replacing the nullfs mounts with ZFS filesystems. I first set up this system out of a curiosity to learn instead of ease, ezjails would probably be simpler and work just as well.
 
fred974 said:
is purplehat.org not too out of date?
Click to expand...

Although the post is old, a lot of it still holds true. The last time I went through it was almost a year ago. It might contain few gotchas, but I doubt it is anything that you can not easily solve.
 
Thanks guys. Could you show me a simple example of a file system to use using my disks?

fred
 
Do you speak german? I could recommend a FreeBSD beginners book covering all you mentioned. But it's written in german.
 
i don't i'm afraid.
I've been trying to find a good book but can't find one that deal with version 9
 
If you're new to setting up FreeBSD on a server why not try TrueOS? All the goodness of FreeBSD 9.1 with a nice GUI installer providing ZFS based setup. You also get Warden for jail management and PBI package management while retaining all the power and flexibility of a standard FreeBSD installation. Doesn't get any simpler than that for a beginner, IMHO.

(disclaimer: no affiliation to IXSystems; just a satisfied user.)
 
redw0lfx said:
Although the post is old, a lot of it still holds true. The last time I went through it was almost a year ago. It might contain few gotchas, but I doubt it is anything that you can not easily solve.
Click to expand...

It's a GREAT how-to. My only problem is that for whatever reason I had trouble getting it to run on Freebsd9+. I'm sure I could've worked it out if I really put some thought into it, but at the time I just wanted to get it up and running as fast as possible. I'm assuming we're referring to purplehat's Postfix+Dovecot+MySQL+SpamAssassin+Maia walk-through (http://www.purplehat.org/?page_id=4).
 
t0ken said:
It's a GREAT how-to. My only problem is that for whatever reason I had trouble getting it to run on Freebsd9+. I'm sure I could've worked it out if I really put some thought into it, but at the time I just wanted to get it up and running as fast as possible. I'm assuming we're referring to purplehat's Postfix+Dovecot+MySQL+SpamAssassin+Maia walk-through (http://www.purplehat.org/?page_id=4).
Click to expand...

Yes. I didn't have any issues with FreeBSD 9.0. Will be trying to set it up on 9.1 soon.
 
Try iRedMail

I can suggest to try an installation of iredmail in a FreeBSD jail. It will almost automatically setup and configure your web, mail and database. You can then take a good look at the configuration files and modify it for your own use or use it as a base for setting up your applications in an other jail.
 
Dear Mods/Warren,

Can we have a sticky somewhere pointing newcomers to PC-BSD and any other alternatives that will get help them get up and running quickly?

I see a lot of "help me get started" sort of posts here, and let's face it the vanilla FreeBSD installation experience is a bit daunting.

@Fred974: TrueOS is FreeBSD with some added features for ease of use like the GUI installer. So yes, you do get all the security and stability of FreeBSD. If you don't want the additional features you can still use the GUI installer to do a standard FreeBSD installation.
 
ziyanm said:
Dear Mods/Warren,

Can we have a sticky somewhere pointing newcomers to PC-BSD and any other alternatives that will get help them get up and running quickly?

I see a lot of "help me get started" sort of posts here, and let's face it the vanilla FreeBSD installation experience is a bit daunting.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I thought we had that. PM me.
 
If you are new to FreeBSD stick with the traditional UFS file system.

If you are new to FreeBSD KISS, Keep It Simply Simple.

I would start with installing FreeBSD on one disk. You can always expand and relocate (should be read: copy) directories to the other drives. In the past I've installed my OS across multiple drives. I am doing a fresh install of FreeBSD and it is all on one drive.

As I said above, keep it simple until you are comfortable with the system.

-JJ
 
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