Absolute FreeBSD, 3rd Edition: The Complete Guide to FreeBSD

This updated edition of Michael W. Lucas’ definitive volume on FreeBSD-based systems adds coverage of modern disks, the ZFS filesystem IPv6, redesigned jail and packaging systems, and virtualization, among dozens of new features added in the last 10 years.

FreeBSD is the muscle behind companies like Netflix and EMC. Any place where someone does heavy lifting on the Internet, you’ll find FreeBSD. This newly revised edition of Absolute FreeBSD brings FreeBSD’s strengths to bear on your problems and covers FreeBSD’s newest features, all in the inimitable style that has made author Michael W. Lucas’ system administration books so popular.

Any computer system is only as good as the system administrator’s knowledge. Absolute FreeBSD teaches you everything you need to know about managing FreeBSD systems, from installation, configuration, and taking the system from “just working” to “working well.” A cohesive focus on service delivery and best practice means that you can apply much of the book to other operating systems.

Absolute FreeBSD dives deep into server management, taking you beyond just making things work and into understanding why they work.

You’ll learn:

• How to best install FreeBSD to meet your needs
• Which filesystem to use in your environment
• How to back up and restore critical data
• How to tweak the kernel, and when not to
• Network configuration, from activating interfaces to selecting congestion control algorithms
• How to manage UFS, ZFS, and other critical filesystems
• FreeBSD’s software packaging system, including how to build your own package repository
• How and when to upgrade
• Techniques to build your own FreeBSD
• Advanced security features like blacklistd and packet filtering
• How to monitor and adjust performance
• Container-style virtualization with jails
• Diskless systems
• Panic management and bug reporting

With Absolute FreeBSD readers will get the solid introduction they need while fans of the earlier editions will expand their skills even further.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Getting More Help
Chapter 2: Before You Install
Chapter 3: Installing
Chapter 4: Start Me Up! The Boot Process
Chapter 5: Read This Before You Break Something Else! (Backup and Recovery)
Chapter 6: Kernel Games
Chapter 7: The Network
Chapter 8: Configuring Networking
Chapter 9: Securing Your System
Chapter 10: Disks, Partitioning, and GEOM
Chapter 11: The Unix File System
Chapter 12: The Z File System
Chapter 13: Foreign Filesystems
Chapter 14: Exploring /etc
Chapter 15: Making Your System Useful
Chapter 16: Customizing Software with Ports
Chapter 17: Advanced Software Management
Chapter 18: Upgrading FreeBSD
Chapter 19: Advanced Security Features
Chapter 20: Small System Services
Chapter 21: System Performance and Monitoring
Chapter 22: Jails
Chapter 23: The Fringe of FreeBSD
Chapter 24: Problem Reports and Panics