FreeBSD cloud use cases? reddit / BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yellomango · 2015-09-28 06:52 Hello BSD community, I am a linux user who is wanting to learn about bsd by using it. However i do not have the ability nor the budget to have an on site server for backups/networking/storage (poor college student). I do have a lot of credit for digital ocean and would like to deploy some bsd servers. My only problem being use cases where i would actually use the server. Backups are one, but i feel i will not learn a lot about BSD simply setting up a file server. I did not know if a dns server in the cloud would benefit me in anyway. If i can cache websites i visit frequently i would assume that helps, however if it's on a droplet i am still retrieving that file from the internet, meaning my speed could possibly be slower. Perhaps a low budget raspberry pi would serve me better, though i would like to deploy some servers. Any ideas/comments would be greatly appreciated, thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JohnnieTalker · 2015-09-28 08:47 To learn FreeBSD, I would just start with a local virtual machine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yellomango · 2015-09-28 08:50 To learn the commands and desktop use that is fine. However I want to learn to manage a deployed server, which IMO is much different than running a local virtual instance. Nothing I can usefully deploy on one. My goal is to create something I actually use. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fwaggle · 2015-09-28 09:38 I use both Linode and Digital Ocean with FreeBSD now. The smallest offer from DO works okay for a FBSD host if you don't expect much from it. I irc from it and browse Usenet using tin. I dunno what DO's stance is, but we could always use more TOR nodes, even if it's not an exit. I used a micro instance on AWS' free tier with FreeBSD as well, but AWS is dog shit unless you drink the AWS koolaid (it's really quite good if you do things the AWS way, I host my blog on it, but if you just want to rent a virtual server it's rather expensive and fraught with gotchas). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapo_Rouge · 2015-09-28 10:41 Perhaps something like [Owncloud on a jail](http://l33t.codes/jailed- owncloud-in-freebsd-10-1/) ? Or anything else that might be useful to you (Synchronized calendar or files ? Bittorent box ? BOINC ? SFTP ? Git repo ? ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2015-09-28 10:47 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Philluminati · 2015-09-28 12:16 Why not try to replace your local machine with your DO Free BSD machine. Use vim, tmux etc to work on college projects, share code, work remotely on things etc. See how that works out. Sounds like you just need an application to put a server to use for. I would say a Raspberry Pi is a very underpowered machine and can be frustrating to use. It's an excellent media player but a poor web browser. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- eleitl · 2015-09-28 13:06 In case you need a hoster that has some FreeBSD support http://wiki.hetzner.de/index.php/FreeBSD_Rescue-System/en http://wiki.hetzner.de/index.php/FreeBSD_installieren/en ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yellomango · 2015-09-28 14:06 I did try to put pc-bsd on my machine alongside arch. For some reason the uefi will not detect my installation ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yellomango · 2015-09-28 14:07 Currently use Ubuntu as a bittorent box. I'll migrate it to a jail thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Philluminati · 2015-09-28 14:21 Sorry I didn't mean duel boot. I was suggesting installing BSD on a Digital Ocean and try working remotely. I.e. ssh to it and do all your work that way. documents, essays, code projects, whatever. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pyvpx · 2015-09-28 14:48 DO supports FreeBSD. so does AWS... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bbbryson · 2015-09-28 15:54 AWS requires baking your own images, I wouldn't call it official. Rackspace and Digital Ocean, though, are both options. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Neco_ · 2015-09-28 16:20 There are ready-made freebsd AMIs available, no need to roll your own. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- efxhoy · 2015-09-28 18:06 Some things i would do: A VPN server would be cool to run in the cloud. A jupyter notebook server for python development. Backup server with rsync over SSH in cron. Host a blog/CV/file sharing with nginx. If you have access to a few VMs perhaps you could set up some nginx load balancers/failovers? Use them to host dank memes, cat videos or whatever. Set up a reddit bot that archives all submissions in some subreddits you are interested in. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yellomango · 2015-09-28 18:31 Some cool ideas I'm definitely going to implement. Sadly my campus restricts WiFi so VPN is a no go. Luckily setting ssh to listen on 443 let's me remote in for some work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yellomango · 2015-09-28 18:31 Got one up and running now. Trying to get zfs on root, not sure why that's not default for freebsd servers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- efxhoy · 2015-09-28 18:59 >Sadly my campus restricts WiFi so VPN is a no go. Challenge accepted? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yellomango · 2015-09-28 21:46 Tried different ports as well as some other techniques. Its beyond my skill level unless I wanted to code something that re sends the packets. Would take more work than its worth, although would be a fun project. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- perciva · 2015-09-29 01:57 In the AWS Marketplace, no less: https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B00KSS55FY/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- distalzou · 2015-09-29 03:14 It's not the default because ZFS has a pretty hefty memory requirement. Even with 2GB it's very tight; 4GB would be required for stable operation in the presence of any other heavy memory load (e.g. compiling chromium or the like). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yellomango · 2015-09-29 03:19 Still an option would be nice. I tried twice re installing BSD only to get as far as networking, even when copying my networking file from the fresh jnstall ---------------------------------------------------------------------- techsnapp · 2015-09-29 13:17 > Got one up and running now. If it's at DO, I wouldn't want zfs. Unless you want to work and learn the internals of zfs, it's probably best for you to start learning the OS as a whole from a high level and then to get lower levels over time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yellomango · 2015-09-29 16:39 While that makes since I was hoping of using a DO droplet for backups, yes I know snapshots + rsync works I wanted to try the send receive part of zfs. BTW Allan Jude brought me to BSD ;) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- techsnapp · 2015-09-29 18:21 Yes, I'm anxious to try out zfs and read the books about it! you watch bsdnow, right? They may go more to freebsd side now but don't forget about openbsd, either! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yellomango · 2015-09-29 19:26 Of course! Honestly i'm a little ocd about watching the whole network shows (yes even the ladies show [they have good content so i listen!]) if a day goes by and i haven't watched them i'm probably in a coma. I don't know that much of the difference rather than openbsd is more secure/stable. If i'm correct it does not have the ports tree either. Once digital ocean gets support for openbsd i will probably try it out for a webserver ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rlabonte · 2015-10-01 04:28 I've installed VPNs on port 443 in the past. Ports 80 and 443 are guaranteed to get through any network's firewall. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- felixphew · 2015-10-07 20:23 No, they're not. Our firewall monitors those ports closely and dumps anything that doesn't look like valid HTTP(S) traffic. The only way in or out that I've found is DNS tunnelling (e.g. Iodine) but that is almost unusably slow. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2015-10-11 01:05 [deleted]