FreeBSD As a Server Operating System

Server-wise, FreeBSD will probably do whatever you need it to do, and it will probably do it very well, provided you configure it properly. The degree to which the system needs to be configured depends on how important this machine is and how much network traffic it will handle. Noncritical or low-traffic servers can probably be left as is after your services are properly enabled, but it's entirely possible—almost probable —that you'll have to recompile the kernel to get maximum performance out of a machine that will see a lot of network traffic. That's not unique to FreeBSD, though; it's the same scenario with practically every operating system. The good news is, configuring FreeBSD—even recompiling the kernel—is a fairly straightforward and easy-to-understand process.

The majority of this section will concentrate on installing and configuring services. Specific service configuration is up to you; this guide assumes that you already know what you are doing when it comes to configuring the software you want to run. Therefore, only instructions that directly involve FreeBSD are covered here. If you need further instruction, each of the projects or companies that manage the below-mentioned software maintains its own documentation.

As a general rule, important FreeBSD program binaries are kept in /bin/ or /sbin/, and other binaries that are included in the FreeBSD base system can be found in /usr/bin/. If you install any programs through the package ...

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