Much of the discussion about web hosting and servers centers around operating systems, software, and web applications. But one should not overlook hardware, which can make or break website performance. Here are a few hardware tips to make sure you get the most for your money. 1. When possible, opt …
July, 2010
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28 July
Server Maintenance Tips
Over the course of the past year, we have covered many dedicated server maintenance issues, particularly for servers running Linux. In no particular order, here is a list of some of the more important tips you should remember when taking care of your server. 1. When possible, rely on the …
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15 July
Mail Server Causing High Server Load
Question: My CPU usage on my server is very high, and it seems to be originated from my mail server. What could be the problem? Answer: If your mail server is sucking up valuable CPU power, there are a couple of possibilities, none of which are pleasant. 1. You or …
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13 July
Server Hardware: Celeron vs. Xeon
Intel processors have a variety of names, and there is no shortage in the number of variations. When you are looking to lease or purchase a server, this can be confusing. On the current market, you may find servers with Intel’s Core 2, Celeron, Xeon, and the newer Core i7. …
June, 2010
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29 June
Apache HTTP Server Optimization: Part 2
MinSpareServers and MaxSpareServers – Each virtual server on Apache uses its own set of child processes. With these settings, you can control how many spare processes Apache will run while waiting for more requests. When a child process reaches its maximum requests, the spare processes will be used. On a …
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25 June
Intel May Release a 10-core Xeon
Rumors are circulating that Intel will soon announce their newest Xeon processor with a whopping 10 cores. Intel release notes from the upcoming Hot Chips conference, and on the list of announcements is “Westmere-EX: A 20-Thread Server CPU”. With hyperthreading, the operating system treats each core like two processors (i.e. …
April, 2010
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29 April
ARM CEO Promises Server CPUs in 2011
Warren East, CEO of Arm Holdings revealed that he expects servers based on ARM multicore processors to arrive in 2011. ARM processors are best known in the mobile device market, especially smartphones, because of their low power consumption. Normally, low power consumption equates to low speed, which is fine for …
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23 April
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 Beta Released
As anticipated, the Linux giant Red Hat has released the first beta of the 6th version of its long-awaited enterprise server operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The new OS offers greater server scalability by increasing the strength and performance of KVM hypervisor, its kernel-based virtualization infrastructure. Rather than …
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12 April
Finding Linux files with "locate"
There are a few of ways to find files on a Linux server, but most of them involve actually searching through each file in the filesystem until the correct one is located. This can be time consuming and taxing on the server’s CPU load, especially if you have a lot …
March, 2010
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22 March
Viewing hardware information in Linux
Question: How do I view hardware information about my Linux server? Answer: If you are running your own dedicated server, you will be swamped with operating system and software management, network security, and a host of other responsibilities, but you should not neglect the server hardware itself. There are a …