If you take a look at the graphic below, the spike in the middle will probably stick out quite a bit.  Oddly enough, the spike I noticed in CPU percentage used (which is regulated for VPS at Linode) also spiked up disk usage…mainly because I began to swap when cpu/ram use skyrocketed.  All of this happened with Ubuntu 10.04 installed.  CentOS was the first distro I tried but I quickly switched to Ubuntu when I spotted a really nice how-to in the Linode document library.  Oh, and please excuse my horrible gimp skills on the image below…it was a quick and dirty editing of the image:

cpu usage

After switching to Ubuntu, I began receiving alarms for my account due to the high usage of CPU and disk.  I attempted to tweak settings and configuration files for about a week and realized it just wasn’t going to work for me.  I switched to Debian Lenny and the move was a positive as is reflected in these pictures.

disk usage

I was hoping Ubuntu 10.04 would fit for me since it is a long term support (LTS) release.  CentOS is my normal server distribution of choice and I really wanted to branch out and go with something different.  I used a Linode Stackscript for WordPress for CentOS but elected for vanilla installs of Ubuntu and Debian aftwards (I didn’t like NOT knowing what was installed when I first logged in…call me a control freak).

I just found it interesting that Ubuntu 10.04 did so horribly in this instance.  After investigating, I found a couple of likely suspects:

1. Default Apache install in Ubuntu leaves a lot to be desired..even after tweaking both it and PHP for days I couldn’t get them to lay off the resources.  Even switching to mpm_worker and FastCGI did little to settle things down.
2. Ubuntu swappiness is bad…it is set at 60 (I use 10 normally) and it swapped every chance it could get…it’s set by default to swap more than it should.
3. mod_php on Ubuntu is hungry for all your cpu and ram and disk; be warned!

Debian, as the parent distribution of Ubuntu, would most likely suffer from the same problems…except it doesn’t.  Things are working great with it and I’d recommend it for any of your server needs!  Has anyone else seen this oddity with Ubuntu 10.04?  If so, please drop me a comment below.

Interesting Statistics originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on July 13, 2010.

You may have seen a blip swing by in posting on the site with the default WordPress posting “Hello World” displaying as a new post.  This was due to my recent migration from Site5 shared hosting to a Linode VPS.  During the switchover, the database had not been uploaded yet as I was tweaking the webserver…feedburner detected a change in the RSS when DNS switched and BOOM!  The WordPress default post popped up saying hello.  I thought I had everything planned and timed perfectly but it seems I was off because of how fast DNS switched.

I apologize if this littered your inbox or your RSS reader.  I can promise some GREAT posts coming up.  I’ve been working on a file permissions and user groups posting to help new users out.  I’ve also inherited an older laptop with a PIII that I’ll be installing Salix on soon…I’ve decided to go with LXDE version of Salix 13.  Should be quite fun to see how that performs and report about it.  I’m also investigating Linux command line downloaders that can grab files from the web for you.  So lots of stuff on the horizon.  Once again, apologies for anything odd that may have popped up.

If you’d like to know more about the migration or have Site5 shared or Linode VPS questions, please drop me a line in the comments section.

A Blip on My Posts originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on July 8, 2010.

1. I switched from Serendipity Blogging Engine to WordPress
2. YALB gained a sponsor for hosting

Now, I’ve been running the new blogging engine and software for over a month now so that I could form an opinion on both of these items.  I’m happy to say that WordPress fits the bill quite nicely (more on that in later posts)…but that my host is the BEST part of the changes that have happened.

Evolution Studios offered me some server space on their servers…Linux of course…and not a moment too soon.  My old account was beginning to crawl with latent page loads and the service had grown latent as well.  Evolution Studios stepped in and made me a great offer and asked that I evaluate things and post my honest opinion (whether good or bad) of how the transition went and how well the service is.

Just some background on Evolution Studios:  They power all of the media behind ping.fm and chris.pirillo.com (yes, THAT Chris Pirillo).  Those two sites alone generate a huge amount of traffic and have elected to go with evolutionstudios.org to be their media workhorse.

I can honestly say that both the transition and service went beyond my expectations.  Not only did I have one of their engineers helping me every step of the way, I was able to approach that engineer with all of my questions being answered in REAL TIME…which was fantastic.

So why all the hoopla?  Why would I go out of my way to give these guys a “thumbs up”?  One word…or URL rather.  Ping.fm is one of their clients.  I use ping.fm on a daily basis…it allows me to make one post to ALL my social networks via Instant Message or igoogle page widget.  It’s fast and easy.  And all of their media is powered by Evolution Studios.  So, despite having HUGE customers like Chris Pirillo and ping.fm which both have millions of users on a daily basis…they still found the time to hold my hand through the migration and bent over backwards to make my hosting experience BEYOND EXCELLENT.  I think these guys will continue to grow and will continue to bring on like minded individuals who are courteous and professional…and I think their clients will benefit.

I asked Evolution Studios if they were having any specials this week so that I could tell everyone that reads my blog about them and they wanted to offer readers here a deal.  The first 100 users referred through Yet Another Linux Blog will receive a $20 coupon to go toward any hosting plans purchased.  If this sounds like a good deal or you just want to check the host out, visit Evolution Studios today.  The coupon code is “devnet“.  Remember, that’s the first 100 openings so space is limited!  Let Evolution Studios show you what EXCELLENT products and services are all about

Hosting like it should be...

YALB – Now Brought to you by Evolution Studios originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on October 7, 2008.