FreeBSD MPS - What's New?
The MPS v3 offers a large amount of disk space and includes many improved features, including upgrades to the operating
system and file system, improvements in core services, programs and available installations, and improved Java support.
The MPS v3 is available in three levels, or plans: Basic, Pro, and Pro Plus.
Operating System
The introduction of MPS v3 upgrades the operating system controlling the server from FreeBSD 4.7 to FreeBSD 6.0. Advantages
of FreeBSD 6.0 include the following:
- An improved system scheduler (based on ULE).
- Better threading support, allowing native threading for programs such as MySQL and freeing many system processes for other needs.
- Improved support for many applications, such as Apache 2 and the FreeBSD Ports Collection.
- Support for current Java implementations.
- Better support for the FreeBSD packages library.
- Better operating system support from the FreeBSD community.
File System
The file system of MPS v3 also moves from Unix File System 1 (UFS1) to Unix File System 2 (UFS2). This move increases speed,
performance, and stability of the file system in general. Other advantages to UFS2 include the following:
- Support for variable-sized blocks.
- Extended flag fields.
- Extended attribute support.
Core Services
Noteworthy changes to and information about core services include the following:
- Apache 2.2.3 comes installed as the default Web server. Support for Apache 1.x continues through a vinstall utility, a
custom tool provided for your server.
- Telnet is disabled by default.
Programs and Available Installations
Most programs currently available for installation on MPS v2 are available for MPS v3. Noteworthy changes and issues with
programs and available installations include the following:
- PHP 5.1.5 is the default version of PHP.
- MySQL 5.0.24 is the default version of MySQL installed when you execute vinstall mysql.
- Perl 5.8.7 is the default Perl version supported. You may install other versions through the FreeBSD Ports Collection.
- The SoftCart shopping cart software is not available for MPS v3.
- The Urchin 3 Web analytics tool is not available. Urchin version 5 is supported.
Java
The MPS v3 includes support for the current Java Developer's Kit (jdk) and Java Runtime Engine (jre). These features are
available as vinstalls (java_jdk and java_jre) on MPS v3 Pro Plus plans. The vinstall gives instructions for downloading
the FreeBSD installation files from the FreeBSD Foundation Web site, and then uploading them to the MPS account.
The Tomcat Web application server is also available with the MPS v3. Available through a vinstall, the Tomcat server can
support several different kinds of Java applications, including servlets and JSP pages. Tomcat requires the installation
of the Java Runtime Engine or the Java Developer's Kit and is available on MPS v3 Pro Plus plans.
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