Over the last couple of months I’ve had performance issues with Cloudflare (CF) about 2 times, including today. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d write, because Cloudflare genuinely doesn’t have performance issues most of the time, and when they do, it’s usually on the status page as part of a larger issue. This one […]
Articles tagged: apm
What is Linux iowait? (Explained With Examples)
iowait (wait, wa, %iowait, wait%, or I/O wait) is often displayed by command-line Linux system monitoring tools such as top, sar, atop, and others. On its own, it’s one of many performance stats that provide us insight into Linux system performance. I/O wait came up in a recent discussion with a new client. During our support […]
50 Top Observability and Monitoring Solutions – 2026
“A more targeted list that includes 50 server and observability solutions for 2026” Back in 2014, I compiled a list of top server and application performance monitoring solutions. Sharing that list publicly was a great way to gain feedback and recommendations on other tools available. Over time that list grew from 20 to over 100 server monitoring […]
Free Linux Server Monitoring and APM solutions for SysAdmins
Today’s software applications require developers, testers, and SysAdmins to work together (DevSecOps) more seamlessly than ever before. A single line of code or poorly configured service can negatively impact your application’s performance, causing crippling slowdowns for end-users. This is where infrastructure and application monitoring comes in. Regarding Linux server monitoring, monitoring critical performance metrics of […]
Observability in 5 minutes. Plus, 20 observability software vendors
Previously we’ve covered the future of APM (application performance monitoring) and the expansion of APM into observability. Followed by the race between software vendors to define observability. Most recently, we looked at the evolution of observability as shared by industry-leading software vendors. This article will answer the following questions to bring clarity to the topic of […]
Cloudflare outage on Nov 18, 2025 – Waking up to a broken internet
Cloudflare is one of those companies most people never think about, yet on mornings like this it suddenly becomes the main character. Its network sits in front of millions of sites, speeding them up, filtering junk traffic, and quietly handling DNS and security for everything from tiny blogs to giant social platforms. When that layer […]
Linux top: Here’s how to customize it
The top command (referred to below as Linux top) is a command on Unix and Unix-like systems such as Linux, which provides a dynamic real-time overview of a running system. It can display system summary information and a list of processes or threads currently managed by the Linux kernel. The types of system summary information shown […]
innodb_buffer_pool_size – MySQL Performance
In MySQL performance tuning, few variables wield as much influence as innodb_buffer_pool_size. This essential MySQL configuration parameter directly impacts the performance of InnoDB, the most commonly used storage engine in MySQL. In this article, we will examine the innodb_buffer_pool_size MySQL config variable, shedding light on how to calculate an optimal pool size and understanding its […]
“MySQL server has gone away” error – Solution(s)
The MySQL server has gone away error, which means that the MySQL server (mysqld) timed out and closed the connection. By default, MySQL will close connections after eight hours (28800 seconds) if nothing happens. However, in some cases, your web host, DBA, or app developer may have decreased this timeout setting, as discussed below. MySQL […]
MySQL Performance Tuning: Tips, Scripts and Tools
With MySQL, common configuration mistakes can create severe performance problems. If you misconfigure just one of the many config parameters, it can cripple performance. Of course, the performance of MySQL is often tied to the efficiency of your MySQL queries. It’s essential to ensure that your performance issues are not due to poorly written MySQL […]
