[tarballed]

Hello everyone.
Well, my next task after my PDC is putting up a web server. I've thought about this quite often and want to get some feedback on a couple of things i've been thinking about.

I really think that I can convince my management to let me put our Web server up using FreeBSD. As of now, I know its going to be most likely Red Hat linux unless I can convince them otherwise.

So my question here in starting this thread is to bring some valid arguments that I can bring up to my managment as to why FreeBSD would be better...

I know it's better, but I need to really be detailed and thorough about this. I need to bring up things like security, features that FreeBSD has that Linux does not, what can run on a FreeBSD apache server and so forth.

So feel free to start posting away. I'm going to keep notes so I know what to say when it's time for me to bring up the topic of our web server at work.

Thanks everyone.

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[KrUsTy!]

Is there any reason that you are looking at FreeBSD over OpenBSD for this? I bring it up because a good argument in terms of secuity is that OpenBSD comes with apache already loaded, hardened and configured to run chrooted. Plus its security track-record always makes for a good pitch to the boss over other OSes. Although I love FreeBSD and use it daily, I usually look to use OpenBSD for anything that will serve a publicly accessible IP...

Red Hat is a NIGHTMARE to harden IMHO. (or just nightmare in general... :D) So you could say that FreeBSD is easier to get secure. But since OpenBSD comes hardened that might be an easier sell in terms of security.

{K}

[tarballed]

Good point. Maybe I should compile a list of OpenBSD and FreeBSD for my web server.

Basically, what I want to do is put up a *BSD web server because I really feel that it is much better, more secure and I really don't want to use Linux as my web server...

So ya, let's keep this going. Pluses and minuses for FreeBSD and OpenBSD.

I'm very excited.

Oh, btw, next week, my samba PDC+LDAP goes live. ::gulp::

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[dave]

The majority of hosting companies use FreeBSD for their hosting nowdays :) If you can't get your manager convinced to run FreeBSD then go for the Open option. Either way, he'd be stupid to go with a MS solution, but I'd presume he's looking more down the path of a Linux-based hosting solution. Ahh well, If you go the freebie website I think they had a link in their press section somewhere that could be helpful to show your boss?

[soup4you2]

the only thing openbsd's apache is missing is mod_security which is a easy install anyways but getting php and mysql to work in obsd's chroot is a pain..

it's a pain doing that process on fbsd too..

[frisco]

Write down a list of what your company needs from its web server, including all necessary apache modules, security needs, services (ftp, ssh, etc), user accounts and groups, and some expected usage results (bandwidth requirements, disk/memory requirements, etc). Make up a matrix showing each of these characteristics for each OS you consider, put a 'D' if it's in by default (like chroot on OpenBSD), 'A' if it's an add-on via rpm/port/package (like php on OpenBSD), 'P' if it's possible with some work (like chroot on linux), '?' if it's questionable on that OS, etc etc. Add an appendix to links of more info (lists of pkg's/rpm's available, articles about network perf on each OS, etc etc). If necessary, bias your matrix towards your OS of choice.

When it's time to talk about the web server, you present them this document and, if you've done your job right, there should be no argument.

[tarballed]

Will do frisco...

Right now, I have to build an argument as to why we should seperate our web server from our mail gateway...

To me, it's pretty cut and dry and now I have to make the 'suits' understand Why we dont want to do that...

As it stands now, i will start asking questions on exactly what we need and proceed from there...Once I have my list, I will post it back here.

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