Is FreeNas fine for a webserver?

[Mikuri]

Hello :)!

I've tried FreeNas real quick in Vmware. The WebGui was cool enough, I've created my Raid pretty easily and such. So, right now my question is:

Is FreeNas fine for a pure Webserver with many dynamic websites running on it?

- It's for a business, we want to host a pretty big Intranet (Local website) on it.
- Maybe we'll also add our Website on it too if possible.

Possible specs:
1x SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLL-F-O uATX
1x Xeon 1231v3
2x 8Gb ECC ram (with the possibility to add more).
2x 240Gb SSD (Probably Mushkin or OCZ...) in Raid1 for Data
1x 30Gb OCZ SSD for Boot
1x 450W 80Gold PSU.
1x Server case we already have.

I know that building a Ubuntu Server with a LAMP stack would be "the way to go" but we'd like to run most servers with the same "OS" as in all FreeNas.

Thanks in advance for any input/feedback/suggestion!

 

[pirateghost]

Well, you wouldn't run a webservice on FreeNAS itself, but within (a) jail(s).

Unless you are using FreeNAS for storage purposes, I do not see any benefit here.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Is FreeNas fine for a pure Webserver with many dynamic websites running on it?

The easiest way I know to do this is using virtualmin, which you could run in a jail if you really want to, but you could just as easily run on plain FreeBSD or some flavor of Linux.

Maybe we'll also add our Website on it too if possible.

FreeNAS is not designed to be exposed to the public internet.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Freenas isn't really a web server platform. It can do it but only as a secondary task. Its primary goal is to server files on the local network.

 

[Deleted47050]

If you need a web server, and only a web server, I wouldn't use freenas, it would come with lots of stuff you would not use and that is not good server practice. Have you considered freebsd instead?

 

[Jailer]

Another vote here for FreeBSD. Add your favorite jail manager, create a template for your jails and you're off to the races.

FreeNAS is great but it's all about the right tool for the right job.

 

[Mikuri]

Alright, thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I will try FreeBSD and keep FreeNas for our NAS / Files storage.

 

[jgreco]

If you need a web server, and only a web server, I wouldn't use freenas, it would come with lots of stuff you would not use and that is not good server practice. Have you considered freebsd instead?

I think I'd potentially disagree. While it is important to note that you definitely do NOT want to expose FreeNAS directly to the Internet, a jail (or jails) within the NAS provide a very powerful platform for high performance web hosting, with all the abilities of ZFS to provide caching, notification of storage problems, and other things that are typically missed when someone sets up a one-off webserver. One of the most compelling things about an appliance is that someone else has done all the hard work of making the appliance and then maintaining it going forward; it makes good sense to leverage that if you can.