June 17th 2019: Added instructions for network speed test using speedtest-cli script. Oct 31st 2017: Also see this list of command line scripts. Nov 2nd 2016: Included quick dd commands to check cached vs uncached disk read performance. This article will highlight using the ‘dd’ Unix command for a quick benchmark of your Linux server or VPS. […]
Nginx tuning tips: TLS/SSL HTTPS – Improved TTFB/latency
Since 30th June 2018, the PCI Security Standards Council requires that support for SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0 be disabled. TLS 1.1 or higher must be used and TLS 1.2 is strongly recommended. In addition, as of July 2018, Google Chrome began to mark ‘HTTP’ web sites as “not secure”. Over the past few years, the […]
When is it time to add more application monitoring?
Guest post by James Paden, Partner at Instrumental At Instrumental, we often talk about getting started with monitoring. In the past, we’ve covered the critical, but basic, metrics everyone needs on our Ultimate Monitoring Metrics Cheatsheet (many of which are gathered by out-the-box system and service monitoring). We also wrote the Quick-Start Guide to Monitoring […]
“MySQL server has gone away” error – Solution(s)
MySQL server has gone away error means that MySQL server (mysqld) timed out and closed the connection. By default, MySQL will close connections after eight hours (28800 seconds) if nothing happens. However, in some cases your web host, DBA or app developer may have decreased this timeout setting, discussed below. MySQL server has gone away, can be […]
How to Convert OpenSSH keys to Putty (.ppk) on Linux
PuTTYgen is an key generator for creating SSH keys for PuTTY. PuTTYgen is comparable in certain respects to the ssh-keygen tool. PuTTYgen can be used to create public and private key pairs (in .ppk file format). In addition, PuTTYgen can also be used to convert keys to and from other formats. On Windows PuTTYGen is a graphical tool. A command-line version is available for […]
59 Linux Networking commands and scripts
Today, I wanted to test network throughput via command line with at least 3 tools. For the life of me, I could not remember iperf. We can all relate. It was a bit frustrating, so I decided to create a network tools go-to-list for myself. Then, I thought, why not turn the list into a […]
25 Best CDN Providers 2019
A content delivery network, also referred to as a content distribution network (CDN) is a geographically distributed network of data centers containing proxy servers. CDN Providers serve Internet content, including web objects (text, graphics and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, etc… closer to and thus faster, to end users. Some of the main advantages […]
Pruning Magento Cache & Sessions Using Cron
Note: Magento 1.x only. Over the weekend a client contacted me because they had serious performance issues with their Magento based store. The three main issues were: Checkout taking more than 30 seconds to complete after clicking to submit payment. (Causing double orders/payments and users just leaving the store) Login to the front or back end […]
100 Top Server Monitoring & Application Performance Monitoring Solutions
Last Updated: May 8th 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 […]
20 Top Server Monitoring & Application Performance Monitoring Solutions
UPDATE: 50 Top Server Monitoring & Application Performance Monitoring (APM) Solutions Last Updated May 8th 2019 – 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 […]