Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2002 15:37:26 -0700 From: "Corey Snow" <corey@snowpoint.com> To: Brendan McAlpine <bmcalpine@macconnect.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Kernel changes for a new webserver using FreeBSD? Message-ID: <3D270EB6.8969.58F75DC@localhost> In-Reply-To: <B94CBD71.1805E%bmcalpine@macconnect.com>
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On 6 Jul 2002, at 15:29, Brendan McAlpine wrote: > I am going to be setting up a brand new machine with FreeBSD for use as a > DNS and webserver. > > What changes in the generic kernel would everyone recommend in order to get > the best performance? > Well, from my limited experience, the kernel is pretty good at managing itself- configuring a custom kernel doesn't seem to improve system performance massively for my systems except during the boot process (fewer devices to look for). I expect that a custom kernel will be smaller, which would make it more efficient. Just general recommendations (some obvious): Strip any devices you don't need, even if your system has them. For example, I have a firewall box that has USB built-in, but I turned off all the USB support because I don't use any USB devices on it. Obviously, you should remove any device options you don't need. And you may want to consider some of the security options, unless this machine is going to be behind a firewall, and you may want to even then. In particular, things like options IPFIREWALL/IPFIREWALL_VERBOSE may be useful to you. And there are some built-in settings for stuff like ICMP limitation (preventing DOS attacks) and such. Check the comments out. This isn't exactly kernel-related, but I wouldn't bother with X on a DNS or web server- just use the CLI and SSH to manage it- the server will be much faster in my experience. Also, take a look at the LINT configuration file- the comments provide a lot of information on kernel options. The FreeBSD handbook has a good tutorial on building your own kernel that provides some pointers for performance tuning. Good luck, Corey Snow To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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