FERMI, the seeded free electron laser (FEL) in operation in Italy, is providing the User Community with unique fully coherent radiation, in the wavelength range 100–4 nm. FERMI is the first FEL fully synchronized by means of optical fibers. The optical timing system ensures an ultra-stable phase reference to its distributed clients. Several femtosecond longitudinal diagnostics verify the achieved performance; the bunch length monitor (BLM) and the bunch arrival monitor (BAM) will be presented in this paper. Feedback systems play a crucial role to guarantee the needed longterm electron beam stability. A real-time infrastructure allows shot-to-shot communication between front-end computers and the servers. Orbit feedbacks are useful in machine tuning, whereas longitudinal feedbacks control electron energy, compression and arrival time. A flexible software framework allows a rapid implementation of heterogeneous multiinput–multi-output (MIMO) longitudinal loops simply by selecting the appropriate sensors and actuators.They also acknowledge all funding sources that made the FERMI construction and operation possible, among others: the Italian Minister of University and Research (MIUR),the Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Research Council (ERC) and the European Commission (EC).