This article is still being updated in real-time… A content delivery network or sometimes referred to as a content distribution network (CDN) is a geographically distributed network of data centers containing proxy servers. The main purpose of a CDN is to serve Internet content, including web objects (text, graphics and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live […]
Blog Entries
100 Server and Application Performance Monitoring Tools 2019
Last Updated: Jan 15th 2019 November 29th 2018 – Site24x7 replaces Coscale. Coscale was recently acquired by New Relic. Oct 11th 2018 update: 100+ – Fixed 11 broken links. (including defunct, mergers, acquisitions, or changed links) December 1st 2017 update: 70 100 Top Server Monitoring & Application Performance Monitoring Tools. August 6th 2017 update: 50 70 Top Server Monitoring & Application Performance Monitoring […]
Best Linux Distro 2019, for desktop
Searching for the best Linux distro in 2019 for your desktop computer or laptop? This article will probably be most useful to those who don’t know what /etc/fstab is used for. Also, this post does not cover Linux server distributions, but instead focuses on the best Linux desktop distros (distributions). One great way to increase your familiarity with Linux servers […]
Could not increase number of max_open_files to more than… (Solution)
A quick solution to the warning “Could not increase number of max_open_files to more than” when starting MySQL or MariaDB. For some background read How MySQL Opens and Closes Tables. Here’s an excerpt: “The table_open_cache and max_connections system variables affect the maximum number of files the server keeps open. If you increase one or both of these […]
Tuning MySQL: my.cnf, avoid this common pitfall!
Caution: Don’t overwrite my.cnf all at once. Backup data and config, make one or two changes per restart, test extensively. It took me some time to decide the title for this article. MariaDB has been fast replacing MySQL as a growing number of Linux distributions now default to MariaDB over MySQL. MariaDB is an enhanced drop-in replacement […]
Analyze Your Website’s TTFB (Time to First Byte)
Have you improved load time of your websites and web applications recently? Or, maybe your web store or other web app is now slower to respond as you’ve added more features or due to data growth? The time it takes for your web applications to respond when users visit, is more important than ever before! […]
20 Top Server Monitoring & Application Performance Monitoring Solutions
UPDATE: 50 Top Server Monitoring & Application Performance Monitoring (APM) Solutions Last Updated: Nov 23th 2018 – Fixed broken links. (including defunct, mergers, acquisitions, or changed links) Back in September I wrote about an article than touched on the subject of server performance monitoring. Then just last month a LinkedIn connection asked: “I am using New Relic to monitor […]
Best WordPress Cache Plugin
Update November 17th, 2018: Hyper Cache is now being actively developed again. Thus, it has returned as my #1 go-to WP Cache plugin. Changes marked in green. This blog post was originally posted just over 4 years ago. WordPress Cache plugin options have changed a lot since. As such, I’m updating this list of 5 best WordPress plugins. Are you […]
Measure Linux web server memory usage correctly
Important update: This article was originally posted back in 2014. However, as I later posted in 2017 in the blog post Does your Linux server need a RAM upgrade? Lets check with free, top, vmstat and sar …there was a Linux kernel change to address this in 2016. Hopefully, this change will motivate New Relic and others to follow […]
MySQL Query Cache for Performance, Avoid This When Tuning
Update: MySQL query cache is deprecated as of MySQL 5.7.20, and is removed in MySQL 8.0. – mysql.com One of the most misconfigured MySQL performance features, is MySQL query_cache_size. This post references a web server with 32 gigabytes of RAM where the existing config had MySQL’s query cache size set incorrectly to 4 gigabytes. The thought behind it seemed […]