# Testing/Develop/Study server and FreeBSD



## Cisco (Dec 28, 2012)

Hi,
 I recently acquired a Dellâ„¢ PowerEdgeâ„¢ SC1425 (with Dual Xeon 2x2.8Ghz 64-Bit, 6GB RAM, 160GB HDD) and I'd like to use it as a postgres/tomcat (and a little site with apache maybe) to study and better myself (as of right now I'm working as a sysadmin/integrator on at my nation Vodafone... but the path I want to take is dba).

So I heard that for a server FreeBSD is "better" than linux (I'm using it since 2003)... and here I am.

What I ask is.. will I have trouble with this server? Is too limited? In the os ok for the xeon?


Thanks you for any response (and the time you use to write it) and good day


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## SirDice (Dec 28, 2012)

Limited? I'd say it's rather overkill. You can do all that with a simple Pentium machine.


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## Cisco (Dec 28, 2012)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Limited? I'd say it's rather overkill. You can do all that with a simple Pentium machine.




I'd like to have a little room for the future.
So, I won't have problems, you say?

P.S: I also got a Sempron 3400+, Ram 1 Gb DDR400(soon 2GB) without the HDD... maybe for the site a can use that one?


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## Cisco (Dec 28, 2012)

also with FreeBSD I can use ZFS... with linux it's more complicated, it seems.


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## SirDice (Dec 28, 2012)

I don't think you'll have problems with either one. Although the 1GB machine doesn't have enough memory to take full advantage of ZFS. You will need at least 2GB, preferably more. It will run without issues on UFS though.


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## Cisco (Dec 28, 2012)

So web server on the little server, tomcat+postgres+develop on the great one.
The little with UFS, the great with ZFS.
Both with the amd64 arch, right?

Other tips or things to know?

Thanks for the help, btw


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## kpa (Dec 28, 2012)

AMD64 version of FreeBSD. 2GBs of memory at least and you'll have to manually limit the maximum size of the ARC cache to about 768M -1GB so there's enough memory for other stuff.


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## Cisco (Dec 28, 2012)

ok 

So, for knowledge sake, the main difference between Gnu/Linux and FreeBSD?
I had little experience with a Solaris server, outside linux.


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## kpa (Dec 28, 2012)

FreeBSD? So, what is it?


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## Cisco (Dec 29, 2012)

kpa said:
			
		

> AMD64 version of FreeBSD. 2GBs of memory at least and you'll have to manually limit the maximum size of the ARC cache to about 768M -1GB so there's enough memory for other stuff.



I've been reading about ZFS.
About the ARC cache in the 6gb ram server... I read zfs leaves 1gg default ram to the os... I can leave it like that and give 5gb to zfs, right?


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## kpa (Dec 29, 2012)

The system should autotune the amount of ARC cache if you have more than 4GBs of memory. However I'd still set the amount manually because I don't trust the autotuning completely. For 6GBs of memory with 5GBs maximum for ARC cache I would set:


```
vfs.zfs.arc_max="5120M"
```

in /boot/loader.conf


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## Cisco (Dec 29, 2012)

but with postgres, it'wont be a problem?
I read that arch and databases are a case whe the first need to be restricted more.


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## Cisco (Jan 2, 2013)

use usf is ok? is journaled?


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## SirDice (Jan 2, 2013)

Cisco said:
			
		

> use usf is ok? is journaled?



It can be, I think the default on 9.0 is to create SU+J (Soft Updates + Journaling) partitions.


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## Cisco (Jan 2, 2013)

SirDice said:
			
		

> It can be, I think the default on 9.0 is to create SU+J (Soft Updates + Journaling) partitions.



Good.
I got a second 160gb hd so I'll use a raid 1 and with journaling it should be ok 

P.S: good 2013


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## Cisco (Jan 3, 2013)

Last advice.
How would you partition 160gb for a server??

Thanks


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## wblock@ (Jan 3, 2013)

It would depend on the planned use of the server.  In general, give / and /var at least 2G each, 4G for swap.  /tmp is up to you but 1G or 2G, more can encourage storing things there, which is bad.  The rest to /usr.


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## Cisco (Jan 5, 2013)

Thanks all.
I installed it. 
My server


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