From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 20 09:15:37 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BBA66106566C for ; Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:15:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) Received: from outbound-mail-148.bluehost.com (outbound-mail-148.bluehost.com [67.222.38.38]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 696CD8FC1E for ; Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:15:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) Received: (qmail 22638 invoked by uid 0); 20 Mar 2008 09:15:35 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO box183.bluehost.com) (69.89.25.183) by outboundproxy5.bluehost.com with SMTP; 20 Mar 2008 09:15:35 -0000 Received: from c-67-165-217-249.hsd1.co.comcast.net ([67.165.217.249] helo=demeter.hydra) by box183.bluehost.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.68) (envelope-from ) id 1JcGs2-000093-D4 for FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.org; Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:15:34 -0600 Received: by demeter.hydra (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:15:35 -0600 Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:15:35 -0600 From: Chad Perrin To: FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.org Message-ID: <20080320091535.GA27324@demeter.hydra> Mail-Followup-To: FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.org References: <000001c88a5c$82d01b40$887051c0$@com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <000001c88a5c$82d01b40$887051c0$@com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i X-Identified-User: {737:box183.bluehost.com:apotheon:apotheon.com} {sentby:smtp auth 67.165.217.249 authed with perrin@apotheon.com} Cc: Subject: Re: my brother is making me learn FreeBSD... X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:15:37 -0000 On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 11:32:08PM -0800, Donald Laniohan wrote: > My task is to build a BSD server and do something with it. That is all the > information he gave me, that, and any questions I have to make Google my > best friend, which I have. i remember building my first whitebox, it was a > 386 with windows 3.1. I remember when I built my 486 and stole a copy of > windows 95. I thought I was a savage. BSD, however, has showed me how > juvenile I have been. If I do not master BSD my brother is going to keep me > as a desktop support for his windows clients and I want to progress past > this. So he's giving me a 1u, and said to put BSD on it and make it do > something, im just so stuck in my windows comfort zone I can't think of what > I would need a unix server to that I couldn't make windows do for me. I know > this is trivial but if somebody could offer any suggestion or resource I, > and my career, would greatly appreciate it Reasonably easy stuff that'd teach you something useful and *be* immediately useful, all at the same time, would be: 1. Set up a document management server using Subversion. The idea is that you commit a directory you use for your personal documents to a version control system so that whenever you update the documents, you can have both the current and all previous versions recoverable from the server in case of disaster or a desire to "roll back" some changes you've made. A Google search string that should help for getting it set up is: subversion "document management" Since it's probably not "cheating" to have someone point you directly at a link for something on MS Windows, I'll just give you a direct link to an article I wrote a while back about setting up TortoiseSVN on MS Windows. TortoiseSVN is a client for Subversion, and can be used to make use of your personal document management server from a Microsoft Windows client, if you don't have a FreeBSD desktop or laptop system available. The URL is: http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-3513_11-6172851.html 2. Set up a backup server. There are several excellent tools for this that automate most of the process. Popular choices include Backula, rsync, and dump. With some tools, you may want to schedule their operation by use of cron -- which means you'll probably be learning at least two separate tools. Since there are so many different means of setting up a backup server, I'll leave it to you to figure out what search strings to use. 3. Set up a remote filesystem integrity auditing server. Tools such as mtree, Tripwire, and rsync can all be used for this purpose. I've even written articles about the use of these tools for these purposes. You should be able to find them with Google search strings like the following: mtree "integrity auditing" rsync "integrity auditing" tripwire "integrity auditing" I chose these three server types in particular because: 1. They're things you can't do very effectively on MS Windows without tracking down third party software to buy, copy, or download via your browser to install on the system with great annoyance and difficulty. 2. They're relatively easy (with the possible exception of using tripwire or getting really fancy with the configuration of some of these), unlike other things MS Windows doesn't do so well (like setting up a stateful router/firewall, which can easily get fairly complex). 3. I've done them all, and they're all only a very brief shell command away from installing on the system (assuming you have the full CD set or a broadband Internet connection). 4. None of them require use of the X Window System, so you can set them all up and manage them using nothing more than a command shell via SSH. 5. They can all be immediately useful for you, whereas something like a firewall you're setting up without a specific need for a firewall system probably cannot. NOTES: 1. I haven't mentioned the single most useful bit of help you can get for finding out how to get things running in FreeBSD. I'll give you a hint, though; FreeBSD is the OS whose user documentation is the absolute best, in my experience. I haven't used all available OSes, of course, but I've used quite a few. 2. I can't swear that the results you get from the above recommended Google search strings will give you the information you need. They're just ideas off the top of my head for how to get started on searching. I have not tested those search strings for these purposes. 3. Anything I intentionally leave out of this email that might be helpful (such as URLs that lead directly to various resources that give step-by-step instructions on achieving certain ends with FreeBSD), I left out because I wouldn't want to be accused of "cheating" by simply handing over the answers when you have obviously been given a challenge by your brother. The content of this email is meant to offer ideas for what goals to choose, give hints on how it can be done by someone brand spanking new to FreeBSD without giving answers, and explain my choices. 4. I have to stop typing at some point, so you only get the three suggestions for server types above. -- CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ] Paul Graham: "Real ugliness is not harsh-looking syntax, but having to build programs out of the wrong concepts."