Previously, we looked at how swap space, particularly swapping, can severely slow down Linux performance. We then tweaked Linux kernel parameters to make better use of server memory and to avoid heavy swapping. That article created some debate and good arguments for and against swap space. For example, if you have more than enough memory […]
Zorin Linux – As a Windows OS (and MacOS) Replacement
This article has been edited and updated from the original 2014 article. Zorin Linux makes a great Windows OS replacement and now even MacOS replacement. Seven years later and I’m more confident about this recommendation. In the past, you’ve probably heard about or been affected by the retirement of Windows XP support on April 8, […]
How to Kill Inactive SSH Sessions
So, you’ve been disconnected from your server a couple of times, resulting in inactive ssh sessions. You know this because when you use the “w” command, you see something like the following… 22:47:28 up 315 days, 21:09, 2 users, load average: 9.04, 8.17, 7.30 USER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT root pts/0 ipxxx-xxx-xxx-xxx 23:54 26:40 […]
PHP Monitoring Instrumentation for Laravel Web Artisans
Over the last decade, Laravel has evolved to become an elegant open-source web application framework that’s approachable for beginners and experts alike. There are multiple solutions available to instrument your application on your local dev box, staging, and production, and there are just as many options to monitor these instrumentations. While the Open Telemetry PHP […]
85% of all Smartphones are powered by Linux
Smartphones powered by Linux are, for a fact, dominating the smartphone market. A few of you may be scratching your heads at this point. Others are filled with “The Sound of Music” – “The Hills are Alive” kind of Linux pride! Read on, and I’ll provide some pudding, filled with proof that 85% of all […]
How to diagnose OOM errors on Linux systems
Out-of-memory (OOM) errors take place when the Linux kernel can’t provide enough memory to run all of its user-space processes, causing at least one process to exit without warning. Without a comprehensive monitoring solution, OOM errors can be tricky to diagnose. In this post, you will learn how to diagnose OOM errors in Linux kernels […]
Facebook faulty configuration change: Who, what, why?
Update: Facebook just posted another update with just a bit more details. After Facebook’s downtime of around 6 hours which started just before noon on Monday, October 4, 2021, and several hours after restoration, Facebook has finally posted an official explanation for the outage via their engineering blog. The reason for the blackout cited was […]
Linux benchmark scripts and tools
This list of Linux benchmark scripts and tools should prove helpful for quick performance checks of CPU, storage, memory, and network on Linux servers and VPS. Check each script before running from the command line. Most of these scripts will benchmark the CPU, memory, storage, and network. In most cases, the CPU Model, frequency, number […]
Your Web Host Doesn’t Want You To Read This: Benchmark Your VPS
Sept 27th, 2021: Added link to a great list of command-line benckmark scripts. June 17th, 2019: Added instructions for network speed test using speedtest-cli script. Nov 2nd, 2016: Included quick dd commands to check cached vs. uncached read performance. This article will highlight using the ‘dd’ Unix command for a quick benchmark of your Linux […]
atop – For Linux server performance analysis
We’re all familiar with top, a real-time system monitor. Some prefer htop and previously, I mentioned iotop for use with storage read/write monitoring. Let’s looks at another popular tool for Linux server performance analysis: atop. Advantages of atop Atop is an ASCII full-screen performance monitor which can log and report the activity of all server processes. […]