Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 13:18:56 -0600 From: Christopher Schulte <schulte+freebsd@nospam.schulte.org> To: Rob Zietlow <zietlow@berbee.com>, questions@Freebsd.org Subject: Re: Questions about running an IRC server Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20011229122942.02df7248@pop3s.schulte.org> In-Reply-To: <200112290945.fBT9jkJ15668@berbee.com>
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At 03:45 AM 12/29/2001 -0600, Rob Zietlow wrote: >Hi, I was wondering if anyone has any expericne running an ircd. I'm looking >at what sort of System/Connection requirements we might need. We are >looking at setting up a small network, 2-3 computers to support 15-20 users. > We'd like to have a couple servers for redundency, and to load balance. FreeBSD is an ideal choice for ircd serving. Its TCP stack is second to none, as you already know. This is helpful when you have lots of long term tcp connections pumping out time-critical packets to many clients simultaneously. I help maintain a small 8-10ish server irc (hybrid-ircd) network. It's a small group of usually < 60 users. Redundancy is achieved through: - 2 hub servers on different IP networks - all leaf client servers will roll over to the other hub should one fail - dns round robin load dispersion on irc.our-irc-network.tld Unless you want redundancy, you really need no more than one server to support the load you speak of. >Now questions are: > >1) what would be some good minimum system specs? There's not a lot of power needed to serve irc. Anything > 486 should serve you well. My hub servers are a sparc2 and IPX, and there is no discernable latency. I'd suggest a bit more for a client server, if possible. :-) Even an old P75 would probably do the job well. >2) what is network overhead going to be? Any recommended connection for our >small user base. Network usage is very minuscule. We all run on regular DSL lines, and ircd takes up probably less than 1 percent of my pipe at any time. That's with many more than your 20 estimated clients, connected to me at all times. >3) should this be run in a jailed environment (I am guessing so) At the very least create a user 'ircd' and make sure it runs as that. Root is not required as it does not need < 1024 access. I've been doing this for some time and never had any issues to date. >Any other hints, tips, ideas, or web resources would be greatly appreciated. I'm running FreeBSD 4.4 and hybrid 6.2 with the busiest client server. I built it from source, no special configure options. Unfortunately, I really have not found many helpful resources. Irc network administration seems to be taught from one admin to the next. Pull the source, install it, and start playing. By no means is it rocket science. Once it's up and running, I've found I can walk away for weeks and weeks at a time. The network literally runs itself. This is assuming your userbase is non abusive, with ours generally is. Take a look at http://www.ircd-hybrid.org/ There are of course other servers out there. >Rob --c To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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