When a server receives hundreds of requests per second, it's critical that the system continues to run smoothly. That’s where a load balancer comes in — a tool that distributes incoming requests across multiple servers to keep everything fast and stable. In this article, we’ll look at what a load balancer does, how it works, the methods and algorithms used in real-world infrastructure, and why cloud-based solutions are increasingly replacing hardware-based ones.
Podman is a modern container management tool often seen as an alternative to Docker. It lets you run, manage, and group containers — but does so in a way that's simpler, more secure, and more flexible. Unlike Docker, Podman doesn’t rely on a background daemon. This means that if one part of the system fails, everything else keeps working. Another key feature is that containers can be run without root privileges, reducing system-level security risks. It’s also convenient that Podman is compatible with Docker — most familiar commands work in much the same way.
Your server is up, your website loads, everything works. But after a couple of months—problems start creeping in: vulnerabilities pop up, errors appear, some things stop working. Why? The answer is simple: you forgot to install updates.
Ubuntu servers, especially those with SSH access, are constantly being scanned and attacked by bots looking for vulnerabilities. If you skip updates, you’re risking data leaks, downtime, or even hidden crypto miners silently hijacking your resources.
Regular updates patch security flaws, fix bugs, and improve system stability. This is especially important on VPS plans with limited resources, where a small issue can quickly escalate into a major outage.
To avoid unnecessary risk, it's best to enable automatic updates right after setting up your server. Doing everything manually is slow and unreliable—especially if you're away or simply forget. That’s where unattended-upgrades comes in.
Is your site slowing down as traffic grows? That’s a common issue. One good marketing campaign or a mention on a news aggregator — and suddenly your server is struggling. Pages start loading slowly, 502 errors appear, and you're left wondering how to fix it. One of the simplest and most effective solutions is enabling caching in Nginx. It helps take the load off your server and makes your site feel noticeably faster.
When your project is small, Nginx handles things just fine — serving pages, images, scripts. But as traffic increases, each extra request puts more pressure on the system. That’s where caching steps in. It saves processed content and serves it again without redoing the work — saving time and resources.
Sometimes, a device on your network needs a permanent IP address — like when you’re setting up a server, a VPN, or a storage system. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to assign a static IP in Ubuntu 22.04 using Netplan.
Sometimes a single server can no longer handle the growing number of requests — the website starts slowing down, and users begin to complain. That’s when it’s time to think about scaling. The most logical step is to add more servers and distribute the traffic between them. This process is called load balancing. In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up load balancing with Nginx quickly and easily.
Let’s be honest — no server runs without errors forever. No matter how perfectly you configure it, sooner or later something will go wrong. Maybe a file won’t be found, a script will fail, or a resource becomes unavailable. The key is not to panic, but to catch the issue as early as possible so you can fix it right away. But who really wants to keep staring at logs in the terminal all day, searching for errors manually? Wouldn’t it be much nicer if your server could just send you a message on Telegram the moment something breaks?
Let me show you how to set that up in just 15–20 minutes.
When you decide to set up your own mail server, the first thing that comes to mind is reliability. You need a tool that can handle the email traffic, won’t crash at the worst possible moment, and won’t trap you in endless complicated configurations. One such tool is Exim4.
Exim4 is not just another mail-sending program. It’s a reliable mail transfer agent (MTA) that can receive emails, route them to the right recipients, and send them further. It supports encryption, filtering, connection to external SMTP servers, direct mail reception, and custom processing according to your needs.
Why Exim? Because it’s flexible. You can tailor it for any task — whether it’s a small home server or a large mail service with thousands of users. The key is not to be afraid of the settings. And here we’ll show you how to configure it without unnecessary pain.
If you are just starting out with a VPS or VDS, it is important to think about security right away. One simple and reliable way to limit unwanted connections is to configure a firewall. This guide will show you how to do this with UFW, a lightweight utility for managing network rules on Ubuntu.
The Event Log in Windows Server is a useful tool that helps administrators identify issues, analyze errors, and maintain server stability. In this guide, we will explore how to work with the Event Log, what data it stores, and how to analyze it effectively.