Faq
From Jailserver.net
Pre-Signup Questions
What Is FreeBSD
FreeBSD is an advanced operating system derived BSD, the version of Unix developed at the University of California at Berkeley.
What is a FreeBSD Jail
FreeBSD Jails developed out of a need for better security and isolation than the older chroot(2) function. Jails was written from the ground up to provide better control, security and includes the ability to run a complete FreeBSD environment with root access.
Is a Jail like a VPS
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server, and describes a number of different technologies with different end results. Of these technologies, FreeBSD Jails is most similar OpenVZ/Virtuozzo, Linux VServer, Solaris Zones or Containers, and other OS-Level Virtualization systems.
What's the difference between Jails and Virtuozzo/OpenVZ
Virtuozzo is a proprietary product owned and developed by SWSoft (now Parallels), and OpenVZ is the open-source version. They include a modified Linux kernel to create multiple containers which run in an isolated context. This system is not available for FreeBSD.
In contrast, FreeBSD Jails is designed into the FreeBSD operating system by default, and runs natively on any server running FreeBSD.
Both OpenVZ and Jails provide similar functionality. OpenVZ/Virtuozzo has a nice feature set, including tunable parameters to isolate memory usage, I/O throughput, and impose disk quotas. FreeBSD has the Jails mechanism primarily as a security feature. Memory limits and other isolation mechanisms are currently under development. Hosting providers offering Jails must use other methods to control memory usage, disk quotas, etc.
What's the difference between Jails and Xen / VMWare / etc
VMWare and Xen use a "hypervisor" to sit between the guest operating system and the underlying host OS or hardware. This hypervisor provides excellent flexibility to run multiple, independent operating systems (including Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and others). However, the hypervisor uses additional system resources (memory, CPU, etc), and can either reduce performance for the virtual server or reduce the number of virtual servers running on the host system
FreeBSD Jails is built into the FreeBSD kernel to provide a different type of virtualization, so the performance is near-native to a standalone FreeBSD server. However, the flexibility to run Windows, Linux or any other OS inside FreeBSD Jails is non-existent.
Does Jails offer process isolation, memory limits, etc
FreeBSD Jails offers isolated processes from a security standpoint, but currently do not offer memory isolation or I/O throttling.
Several FreeBSD developers are working on adding these features. Until then, there are other methods to ensure that processes and jailed servers don't exceed given memory, CPU and disk limits.
Is 10GB disk space really 10GB of disk space
Pretty much.
The base system is mounted through nullfs (similar to "bind mounts" in Linux), which allows your Jailserver to use the same binaries and operating system as the host server. This means you don't need a complete extra copy of the FreeBSD OS installed in your jail.
Your Jailserver uses about 200MB for utilities and libraries that are not part of the base system, and anything you install yourself will take up space, of course.
Do I get a control panel with my Jailserver
We don't currently offer a control panel like cPanel or Plesk, but you can use the FreeBSD Ports collection to install Webmin/Virtualmin, which is a free web-based control panel for managing user accounts, virtual domains, and other software.
Can I install a control panel with my Jailserver
You can also consider purchasing a license for a lightweight commercial control panel. However, unless you plan to run a large number of virtual domains, with full services, we recommend you install what you need from Ports collection and ask for assistance in our support forums.
If you really need to run a large number of virtual domains, offer hosting services, or otherwise expect more heavy usage, please contact us for pricing on a dedicate server.
Can I run a web server, database server, mail server, etc on my Jailserver
Yes!
You can use the FreeBSD Ports collection to install pre-packaged software, or download the source code and compile your own!
What kind of support do I get at Jailserver.net
We prefer that general support questions and "How do I...?" topics get posted to our support forums. That way, other customers looking for answers get the benefit of your experience. You can also check the forums to see if other customers have run into the same type of issue!
And of course, if you have questions related to your specific account or otherwise need help and would prefer not to ask for help in a public forum, please contact us directly.
Keep in mind, we are a small company and we don't outsource our tech support. We answer tickets as soon as possible and want you to be happy with your service.
While we don't currently have general phone support, we'll be happy to arrange for a scheduled callback if you need to speak with someone directly.
Getting Started
I've signed up and have my login info. What now?
Use SSH to login to your server using the IP address and the root password in your welcome email.
(The following examples use 1.2.3.4 for the Jailserver IP address. Replace this with your IP address.)
If you are on a Mac, Linux, FreeBSD or other Unix-based OS, open a terminal or command line prompt and type:
ssh root@1.2.3.4
If you are using Windows, you'll need an SSH client. We recommend PuTTY because it's free.
We recommend setting up a non-root user account to use for general access. Visit our [HOWTOs "howto" guides] and read the section on adding user accounts.
We also recommend taking a look at the FreeBSD Handbook for information on how to do things on your Jailserver. Start with Chapter 3: Unix Basics if you are not familiar with Unix systems, or Chapter 4 if you want to get right into installing software.
How do I install software?
You can install software three ways:
- use a binary installer provided from the software vendor
- download/compile source code
- use the FreeBSD Ports collection
Binary installers
You'll typically find this with proprietary or commercial software. Read the system requirements and follow the instructions provided by the vendor.
Download/Compile Source Code
Many software programs are available in source code format. You can download the source code, unpack it, and the follow the instructions to compile and install it. The process usually looks similar to this:
cd /usr/local/src wget http://example.com/software.tar-1.2.gz tar -zxvf software-1.2.tar.gz cd software-1.2 ./configure --with-prefix=/usr/local make make install
There are variations to this. Be sure to read the README or INSTALL file included in the source distribution.
FreeBSD Ports
This is by far the simplest in most cases. The FreeBSD Ports collections includes prepared data for thousands of software packages. With two simple commands, you can download, compile and install the package *and* its dependencies! Neat!
For example, if you wanted to install the lighttpd web server:
cd /usr/ports/www make && make install
That's it!
Why are my system directories (/bin, /usr/sbin, etc) read-only?
Using the nullfs feature of FreeBSD, each jailserver shares the base system with the host server.
This has several advantages:
- By mounting the main system read-only, a malicious intruder won't be able to change important system files. This protects your server from common rootkits.
- By sharing the base system, your jailserver doesn't need to keep it's own separate copy of the operating system. This reduces the amount of disk space used by your default jailserver installation and gives you more disk space to use.
There are some minor disadvantages:
- You cannot install software into /bin, /sbin, etc. This is not a huge disadvantage, because ports will install all software into /usr/local, and that is typically where you want to install your additional software anyway.
- You cannot update the base system. Jailserver.net will be responsible in this case for updating the system to address any security issues, etc.
Type "man 7 hier" for details on the FreeBSD filesystem/directory layout.
If for some reason you need to maintain a read-write base system and don't mind the additional space it will use, contact support for assistance.