Free like FreeBSD (incl photos)

Here’s an interesting account of a move from Windows Server 2008 to FreeBSD

…

The most important thing for the server should be file storage. Secure file storage! Well, using Windows Server allowed me to use the onboard RAID0/1 controller to create a mirror of 2x 1TB drives. Nice, but.. I wanted to go to RAID5 and there’s also the costs. Not just for a good RAID card which costs around 350 – 400 Euro (PCIexpress, 3ware), no it’s also the licence for a Windows Server which is pretty expensive. Too expensive for a server that serves just 7 computers in our and the neighbours house.

So, I turned to Google and typed “Good OS for a fileserver”, and guess what it said? FreeBSD. Sure, FreeBSD… I tried that years ago – as desktop and it was nice and easy (compared to Linux very easy and much better structured), but it was never an OS that I would recommend for a desktop.

Then I turned to an IRC channel where I often stayed in the last few years from time to time. It’s the IRC channel of the BSDGroup.de. (The IRC channel is #bsdgroup.de on irc.freenode.org (6667) if you would like to join, but it’s mainly in German). I snapped some keywords on ZFS and RAIDz. Hm.. ZFS? Isn’t this the groundbreaking new filesystem from SUN Microsystems? Yes! And it was ported to FreeBSD. Wow! I like SUN, I like their hardware which is very structured build (ever installed hardware into a SUN? That’s very similar to the Mac Pro – just easy to do!) and of course I fight with Java on my Cisco’s notebook every day. No, I like SUN – they have humor and do cool commercials which you can check out on YouTube.

Read the whole story here.

Source: klein2.de (29/01/2009)