Server use cases for FreeBSD reddit / freebsd ---------------------------------------------------------------------- chris_woina · 2022-08-07 01:14 I want to do something different rather than always working with Linux. But i dont know where to begin. Which use cases for a FreeBSD server are out there, can you guys tell me some server software and are there some server applications or features out there that only runs on FreeBSD? Hope u guys can help me to get into the world of the red devil ^*^ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nickbernstein · 2022-08-07 01:52 Basically anything you can do on Linux. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- chris_woina · 2022-08-07 01:53 Is there anything that i can only do in FreeBSD? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- desnudopenguino · 2022-08-07 01:55 Most anything you can do on linux, you can do on freebsd. You dont have docker, or linux containers, but you have freebsd jails. Zfs has been in freebsd for a long while now. I've run it as a web server with a few different stacks. It makes a solid firewall as well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nickbernstein · 2022-08-07 01:57 I'm sure there are, but it's more about how you do things than what you do. You can run a wordpress site or mail server on windows or Unix, but it's very different. Same idea, but to a lesser extent. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ryannathans · 2022-08-07 02:09 Start off with a web server or something and expand from there ---------------------------------------------------------------------- martintoy · 2022-08-07 02:17 Run jails over ZFS is my case. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- celestrion · 2022-08-07 03:53 Probably not. In fact, it's usually the opposite. While FreeBSD has incubated some nifty features (jails, live filesystem snapshots, and a few others), the FreeBSD mentality is to do the basic things in very solid and predictable ways, and to patiently consider new functionality so that it may be elegant and see little churn over its useful life. This mean while Linux users get to fight with `mdadm`, we get [GEOM](https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=GEOM&sektion=4). Linux users get chided by `fdisk` and `gdisk` with reminders to instruct the kernel to re-read the partition table (WTF should that be the user's job?), we get [one unified tool](https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=gpart&sektion=8) that manipulates disk partitions by committing those structures *through* the running kernel's view of things. A [reasonable `/etc/pf.conf` file](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to- configure-packet-filter-pf-on-freebsd-12-1#step-4-testing-your-base- ruleset) will leave you with very strong opinions about what sort of fate ought to befall the people responsible for `iptables`, and just how many copy-on-write filesystems has Linux tried to homebrew over the years that FreeBSD has been able to boot from ZFS? So the question is less about "what can I only do on FreeBSD," and more "what would I grind my teeth trying to do anywhere else?" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GreenMan802 · 2022-08-07 04:51 Regular server (web, SQL, etc), NAS (FreeNAS), router (pfSense), media server (Plex), chat server, etc. Hell, FreeBSD even works as a decent desktop for many people. I *always* use FreeBSD for my server needs, over Linux. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- _w62_ · 2022-08-07 10:06 To start with, you can take a look at the IPv4 protocol stack implementation and compare with the Linux implementation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- reviewmynotes · 2022-08-07 10:44 One of my favorite advantages of FreeBSD is well thought out and thorough documentation in the form of the FreeBSD Handbook. Another is the ability to run updates from one major version to the next. Linux distributions that I've tried seem to update from X.Y to X.Z decently, but can't go from X.Y to Z.0 or higher. I've moved FreeBSD systems through several major version updates over the years, e.g. installing 9.x and later upgrading to 10.x, and then 11.x. So for me it isn't any overt feature that makes me prefer FreeBSD to Linux. It's the fact that I don't have to waste time migrating applications and data from one install to another every year or two. Instead, I just use the freebsd-update and pkg commands to handle things. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- paprok · 2022-08-07 11:15 fileserver with ZFS - granted, you can do it on Linux as well, but ZFS is better integrated IMO into FreeBSD than in any other OS out there (well, maybe except post-Solaris stuff - Illumos, Indiana and the like). [check this out...](https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2019/04/03/silent- fanless-freebsd-server-redundant-backup/) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- paprok · 2022-08-07 11:16 > I always use FreeBSD for my server needs, over Linux. this is the way :D ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ikinoki · 2022-08-07 11:50 One annoying thing about BSD is upgrading. You need to take down the system and there's no way to make a distributed system to share load so you have to either sacrifice time or hardware. So you can't upgrade live anyhow. And without upgrading you can be switched off from software updates which is much more important than OS upgrades. This is the biggest hurdle in using BSD as server now. Literally every 6 months something breaks in automated upgrades we setup. Either packages from other version won't run and yours is deprecated or worse. With linux you have much stable environment because upgrades are easy via package manager. You can easily replace kernel and use older LTS environment to not throw hardware or downtime at the problem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PkHolm · 2022-08-07 13:05 I'm using FreeBSD for everything I would use a linux server. Mail, home automaton, RSS reader, git, Matrix server, CCTV, file server. I like it more than linux as it has way less bloat and way more manageable then average linux system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EnvironmentalDig1612 · 2022-08-07 14:05 I like FreeBSD, as a long time Linux user I’ve always wanted to have a FreeBSD system. I genuinely enjoy using it as a server OS, and is very light weight. I always tried to avoid using the likes of Ubuntu, and tried to use more light weight things like Slackware & arch. Couldn’t be more happier with my bsd system, I even went as far to set myself up a desk environment. Not entirely sure I am ready for Linux/bsd desktop as some of the games I play don’t run on Linux/bsd- never the less it’s a great experience to have a system that is not bloated. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- desnudopenguino · 2022-08-07 16:06 This sounds more like an infrastructure issue than a problem with FreeBSD. I dont generally update a live system while it is in use. That's asking for trouble in any system. The general 0 downtime solution is to set up a test environment that is updated and test your software there, then provision an updated prod env, and deploy to that. Switch your plumbing to point to it, then decommission the old system. Not everyone has the hardware to do this in their homelab. But in many of those situations, you dont need a 0 downtime SLA. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ikinoki · 2022-08-07 16:53 >This sounds more like an infrastructure issue than a problem with FreeBSD. I dont generally update a live system while it is in use. That's asking for trouble in any system. The general 0 downtime solution is to set up a test environment that is updated and test your software there, then provision an updated prod env, and deploy to that. Switch your plumbing to point to it, then decommission the old system. > >Not everyone has the hardware to do this in their homelab. But in many of those situations, you dont need a 0 downtime SLA. Devops in action. So it's throw hardware at a problem solution. I keep my BSD in vms because I fix it that way. But that shouldn't be a reliable way. There's nothing more annoying than FBSD disabling updates via system library change and that prevents you from installing software completely. I had exactly this issue recently where certbot had to be installed via pip, because FreeBSD broke my python with pkgng update and I had to roll back the deployment because of this. It's not ok to do this. I shouldn't initiate redeploy to update ssl ---------------------------------------------------------------------- desnudopenguino · 2022-08-07 17:28 I've never run into that issue, and have been using certbot for quite some time, but I dont use pkgng either. This is the reason why devops type solutions exist. Unintended consequences of software dependencies. I lack faith in systems functioning 100% after an upgrade, which is why I prefer this solution. I can agree that software upgrades should be smoother, but regardless of the OS, it is a situation that I've run into. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- justonelastthign · 2022-08-07 20:28 Are you sure you're using FreeBSD? What you are describing makes no sense at all and the problems you claim to have do not happen with us or anyone I know ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lenzo1337 · 2022-08-08 02:48 Use it to build a cool product around the OS. It's got the BSD license so you can do some pretty interesting stuff commercially. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ikinoki · 2022-08-08 23:31 Biggest issue is that ports also can break though less common to happen I had that. That's the reason I lowered Fbsd usage from 10 systems to 1+1dev. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ikinoki · 2022-08-08 23:34 Then you're not using it. I've been using BSD since 4.7. Back then it was a great OS, then 5 brought in GiL so we'd wait till 6. By 7 it was good again. 8 great, then they started forcefully deprecating old setups forcing upgrades with huge internal changes. This only grew with each version. Now in 12.1 to 12.2 I encountered last straw for me ---------------------------------------------------------------------- desnudopenguino · 2022-08-08 23:51 That's fair. I dont use many ports these days. I've just become accustomed to setting up a vm to test things before I deploy, or deploy to a fresh instance with updated software. With all the automation tools, it is easier to do that than deal with broken dependency hell, and gives me ways to reproduce the same environment to troubleshoot issues if they arise on a prod env. Linux has more support for more software because there is an insanely larger nu.ber of users and devs. So updates and upgrades will be smoother. Whereas pretty much all software comes from the linux world and has to be ported into BSD, with the new kernel and all to deal with, so not everything is kept as up to date. Ports arent as foolproof as packages. And opting for ports can lead to breaking changes occasionally. Much like building something with make or gmake and then updating a system. Some dependencies may be out of sync, and things get weird. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- justonelastthign · 2022-08-09 02:02 No. I'm positive you are not using FreeBSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Gornergy · 2022-08-09 13:02 I'm not aware of any that are FreeBSD exclusive. I like and use it for: * Filer * Router * Jump box * DB design & testing * internal web server * work "desktop" (over SSH, gives me everything I need and doesn't clutter up my actual desktop with work stuff) But almost anything you'd use a server for, you can do in FreeBSD. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PeterOutWest · 2023-12-14 05:52 FreeBSD connect to Wi-Fi