Step By Step install web server on FreeBSD

For those who have never tried FreeBSD including Windows and Linux, I would like to recommend to try it just once. FreeBSD is one of the most efficient operating system for heavy-load internet server. Below are what I did to setup a web server on FreeBSD. In this article I will focus on FreeBSD 6.1, Apache 2.2.3, MySQL 5.0.26, PHP 5.1.6, FastCGI 1.09, eAccelerator 0.95-rc1, and LimitIPConn 0.22.

Apache 
cd /usr/ports/www/apache22
make WITH_MISC_MODULES=yes WITH_CACHE_MODULES=yes WITH_MPM=worker
make install

Add below line into /etc/rc.conf.
apache22_enable="YES"

Now you are able to start it immediately.
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apache22 start

MYSQL 

cd /usr/ports/databases/mysql50-server
make WITH_CHARSET=tis620 WITH_XCHARSET=all WITH_COLLATION=tis620_thai_ci BUILD_OPTIMIZED=yes
make install
cd /usr/ports/databases/mysql50-client
make
make install
 
Add below line into /etc/rc.conf.
mysql_enable="YES"

Now you are able to start it immediately.
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql-server start

PHP
cd /usr/ports/lang/php5
make
make install
cd /usr/ports/lang/php5-extensions
make
make install

Add index.php to directive DirectoryIndex in /usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf
DirectoryIndex index.html index.php

Create a php.ini from php.ini-recommended.
cp /usr/local/etc/php.ini-recommended /usr/local/etc/php.ini

Modify below setting in /usr/local/etc/php.ini.
short_open_tag = On
memory_limit = 128M
post_max_zie = 32M
upload_max_filezie = 32M

Don't forget to restart apache22 to activate the change in php.ini.
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apache22 restart
mod_fcgid 1.09

There are 2 FastCGI implementation which are completely compatible. I had tried mod_fastcgi first but it seemed mod_fcgi was much better.
cd /usr/ports/www/mod_fcgid
make
make install

Create a file /usr/local/etc/apache22/Includes/fastcgi.conf.
<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi
Action application/x-httpd-php /cgi-bin/php5.fcgi
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php
</IfModule>

Create a file /usr/local/www/apache22/cgi-bin/php5.fcgi.
#!/bin/sh
PHPRC="/usr/local/etc"
export PHPRC
#PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=4
#export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN
#PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=5000
#export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS
exec /usr/local/bin/php-cgi

Don't forget to make it executable.
chmod +x /usr/local/www/apache22/cgi-bin/php5.fcgi

Then restart apache22 again.
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apache22 restart
eAccelerator 0.9.5-rc1

If your web server are loaded by lots of concurrent users, you might try eAccelerator to cache the state of PHP.
cd /usr/ports/www/eaccelerator
make
make install

Add below lines into /usr/local/etc/php.ini.
zend_extension="/usr/local/lib/php/20050922/eaccelerator.so"
eaccelerator.shm_size="16"
eaccelerator.cache_dir="/tmp/eaccelerator"
eaccelerator.enable="1"
eaccelerator.optimizer="1"
eaccelerator.check_mtime="1"
eaccelerator.debug="0"
eaccelerator.filter=""
eaccelerator.shm_max="0"
eaccelerator.shm_ttl="0"
eaccelerator.shm_prune_period="0"
eaccelerator.shm_only="0"
eaccelerator.compress="1"
eaccelerator.compress_level="9"
mod_limitipconn 0.22

In case of your web server has been loaded too much by the same IP address, limitipconn2 might help you to solve the problem.
cd /usr/ports/www/mod_limitipconn2
make
make install