Web Design Blog - server administration

Hosting Toolbox Tip - .htaccess Files Are Your Friend

So often your web host limits the amount of functionality you are able to access at the server level. Perhaps you have a shared hosting account and want to be able to do some advanced functions, but you don't have access to configure the server.  Well there are some tools to help you manipulate functions within your web directories using the infamous .htacess file. .htaccess is simply a file that can be placed in any folder to tell the web server how to handle files in that folder. .htac... read more!

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Postfix default message limit

By default postfix has a message limit size of 10 megabytes. In today's world you may want to change this amount to be much higher, and you may want to allow larger mailbox sizes in general as well. You can do this with a few commands on your server: postconf -d that command will show you what the defaults are, you can do a postconf -d | grep limit to see what all your limits are defaulted to postconf -n will show you what you've explicitly set postconf -e "message_size_limit = 102400000"... read more!

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Backporting and pci compliance software versions

Backporting is a practice of taking fixes that were applied to a newer version of a piece of software and applying those fixes to an older version of that same software. Sometimes the patch needs modification to work with the older software. Backporting is done a lot in the world of linux distributions. A distribution stable repository will keep an older version of software long after a new version is released. They do this so that they can be sure there are no new bugs in the software release ... read more!

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Installing php json pecl extension on centos

The json extension for php enables some useful functions: json_encode and json_decode. Unfortunately the centos repository version of php does not come precompiled with the json extension and they do not have a php-json package that you can install from the repository. Luckily it isn't too hard to build that extension through the pecl extension repository. First you must make sure you have pear and php devel packages installed. yum install php php-pear php-devel You will then need to make sur... read more!

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Server Rack Rails

Almost every time you purchase a server to put in a rack, you will need to purchase rack rails in addition in order to complete your installation. Rack rails mount on the rack itself and then attach to the server to hold the server in the rack. There are some different rack types, you may have a two post or a four post. This is why the rack rails are sold separately from the server. When you purchase the rails, I highly suggest getting quick mount rails that slide. It makes installation a breeze... read more!

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Linux, make your processes play “nice”

Ever run into a problem where one program on your server starts using up all the cpu? Make that process be "nicer" to the rest of the running programs. Each running process has a nice value, essentially a priority for who gets more of the cpu time. You will need the process id of the process you want to be nicer, you can get that using the nifty "ps" command. After you do that, renice that process with a command like renice +15 -p <process_id> The nice priority works in reverse of how a re... read more!

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The 95th Percentile

Bandwidth equals dollar signs. Similar to electricity, the packets traveling to and from online appliances worldwide is a multi-billion dollar industry. We have been in the dedicated server hosting business for many years. However, as our server business grows, so does the need for imporved monitoring and bandwidth contols. This is where the 95th percentile comes into play. Bandwidth and burstable high speed bandwidth are similar to a Wendy's Fish Fillet and Tokyo Sushi, in regard to the pocketb... read more!

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Server Monitoring Tools (php)

I've been looking for a decent (simple) server monitoring tool that I could install to view at a snapshot glance what our servers are doing. I found several and thought I'd share a few: 1. Iguana Server Monitor (open source) Install this simple php script on the box you want to view stats for and you're good to go. Really it's that simple. Just upload a php script to your web directory, browse to that page and you can see in an instant all the specs of your server, processes, etc. 2. http va... read more!

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