Book Image

Ubuntu Server Cookbook

By : Uday Sawant
Book Image

Ubuntu Server Cookbook

By: Uday Sawant

Overview of this book

Ubuntu is one of the most secure operating systems and defines the highest level of security as compared other operating system. Ubuntu server is a popular Linux distribution and the first choice when deploying a Linux server. It can be used with a $35 Raspberry Pi to top-notch, thousand-dollar-per-month cloud hardware. Built with lists that there are 4 million + websites built using Ubuntu. With its easy-to-use package management tools and availability of well-known packages, we can quickly set up our own services such as web servers and database servers using Ubuntu. This book will help you develop the skills required to set up high performance and secure services with open source tools. Starting from user management and an in-depth look at networking, we then move on to cover the installation and management of web servers and database servers, as well as load balancing various services. You will quickly learn to set up your own cloud and minimize costs and efforts with application containers. Next, you will get to grips with setting up a secure real-time communication system. Finally, we’ll explore source code hosting and various collaboration tools. By the end of this book, you will be able to make the most of Ubuntu’s advanced functionalities.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
15
Index

Monitoring storage

Storage is one of the slowest components in a server's system, but is still the most important component. Storage is mainly used as a persistence mechanism to store a large amount of processed/unprocessed data. A slow storage device generally results in heavy utilization of read write buffers and higher memory consumption. You will see higher CPU usage, but most of the CPU time is spent waiting for I/O requests.

The recent developments of the flash storage medium have vastly improved storage performance. Still, it's one of the slowest performing components and needs proper planning— I/O planning in the application code, plus enough main memory for read write buffers.

In this recipe, we will learn to monitor storage performance. The main focus will be on local storage devices rather than network storage.

Getting ready

As always, you will need sudo access for some commands.

Some of the commands many not be available by default. Using them will prompt you if...