Running FreeBSD on AWS gives you the flexibility of the cloud without giving up the control and reliability that make FreeBSD worth using in the first place. I design, deploy, and manage FreeBSD environments inside Amazon Web Services for clients who want performance, stability, and full system visibility.
AWS doesn’t make FreeBSD a first-class citizen, but that’s never stopped it from being a solid platform there. I build and maintain FreeBSD EC2 instances using custom AMIs or images from the FreeBSD Foundation, then configure them for production workloads. That includes web servers, application stacks, mail systems, VPNs, or custom jails running on top of FreeBSD in the cloud.
FreeBSD on AWS requires a different mindset from Linux administration. You don’t get the same tooling or baked-in integrations, so you have to understand how to work around it. I handle the low-level details that make it run properly—kernel tuning for the virtual hardware, network optimization for Amazon’s virtual NICs, EBS performance tuning, and ZFS adjustments for cloud storage behavior.
My FreeBSD on AWS services include:
Deployment and Configuration: Building and tuning EC2 instances running FreeBSD, with proper networking, storage, and security settings.
- Custom AMIs: Creating and maintaining tailored FreeBSD images optimized for your workload.
- Performance Tuning: Adjusting kernel parameters, ZFS caching, and system resources for EC2 performance consistency.
- Automation and Scaling: Integrating with AWS CLI or Ansible for repeatable deployments and infrastructure as code.
- Networking and Firewalls: Setting up pf firewalls, VPNs, and secure networking between AWS regions or hybrid environments.
- Monitoring and Maintenance: Integrating FreeBSD with CloudWatch, custom logging, and alerting systems for uptime and metrics tracking.
- Backup and Recovery: Snapshot management, ZFS replication, and disaster recovery planning tailored to AWS infrastructure.
Most AWS environments I take over started as quick experiments that grew into production systems. At some point, they become hard to manage, expensive, or unreliable. I clean them up, reorganize configurations, and make them consistent so that scaling, backups, and updates stop being guesswork.
FreeBSD fits cloud infrastructure better than most people think. It’s resource-efficient, stable under load, and its network stack outperforms most Linux variants when tuned correctly. You don’t get a fancy dashboard or marketplace installer, but you get full control and predictable performance.
If you’re already running FreeBSD on AWS and need help tuning or securing it, or if you’re planning to deploy a new environment and want to do it right the first time, I can handle setup, optimization, and ongoing administration under contract.