Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to common questions about server management, our content, and best practices.
Security & Hardening
Why should I disable SSH password authentication?
Disabling password-based logins mitigates the risk of automated brute-force attacks. Utilizing cryptographic SSH keys provides a significantly higher level of security, ensuring that only users with the correct private key can access your servers.
Containerization
What is the primary benefit of Docker?
Docker encapsulates applications and their dependencies into standardized units called containers. This guarantees environmental consistency across development, testing, and production phases, drastically reducing "it works on my machine" issues.
Infrastructure Management
How often should I back up database servers?
For critical production databases, we recommend automated daily full backups coupled with continuous or hourly transaction log backups. It is crucial to store these backups off-site or in distributed cloud storage to protect against physical server failures.
Web Servers
Which web server is better: Nginx or Apache?
Both are excellent, but they serve different needs. Nginx excels at handling concurrent connections and serving static files rapidly. Apache is highly flexible with its dynamic module configurations and extensive legacy support.
Database Optimization
How do I optimize MySQL for high traffic?
Optimizing MySQL involves adjusting the buffer pool size, enabling query caching where appropriate, indexing slow queries efficiently, and actively monitoring CPU and memory usage to identify bottlenecks.