Server Management
Server management principles for production operations. Learn to THINK, not memorize commands.
- Process Management Principles Tool Selection Scenario Tool Node.js app PM2 (clustering, reload) Any app systemd (Linux native) Containers Docker/Podman Orchestration Kubernetes, Docker Swarm Process Management Goals Goal What It Means Restart on crash Auto-recovery Zero-downtime reload No service interruption Clustering Use all CPU cores Persistence Survive server reboot
- Monitoring Principles What to Monitor Category Key Metrics Availability Uptime, health checks Performance Response time, throughput Errors Error rate, types Resources CPU, memory, disk Alert Severity Strategy Level Response Critical Immediate action Warning Investigate soon Info Review daily Monitoring Tool Selection Need Options Simple/Free PM2 metrics, htop Full observability Grafana, Datadog Error tracking Sentry Uptime UptimeRobot, Pingdom
- Log Management Principles Log Strategy Log Type Purpose Application logs Debug, audit Access logs Traffic analysis Error logs Issue detection Log Principles Rotate logs to prevent disk fill Structured logging (JSON) for parsing Appropriate levels (error/warn/info/debug) No sensitive data in logs
- Scaling Decisions When to Scale Symptom Solution High CPU Add instances (horizontal) High memory Increase RAM or fix leak Slow response Profile first, then scale Traffic spikes Auto-scaling Scaling Strategy Type When to Use Vertical Quick fix, single instance Horizontal Sustainable, distributed Auto Variable traffic
- Health Check Principles What Constitutes Healthy Check Meaning HTTP 200 Service responding Database connected Data accessible Dependencies OK External services reachable Resources OK CPU/memory not exhausted Health Check Implementation Simple: Just return 200 Deep: Check all dependencies Choose based on load balancer needs
- Security Principles Area Principle Access SSH keys only, no passwords Firewall Only needed ports open Updates Regular security patches Secrets Environment vars, not files Audit Log access and changes
- Troubleshooting Priority
When something's wrong:
Check if running (process status) Check logs (error messages) Check resources (disk, memory, CPU) Check network (ports, DNS) Check dependencies (database, APIs) 8. Anti-Patterns ❌ Don't ✅ Do Run as root Use non-root user Ignore logs Set up log rotation Skip monitoring Monitor from day one Manual restarts Auto-restart config No backups Regular backup schedule
Remember: A well-managed server is boring. That's the goal.