Running a Node.js app directly on port 80 or 443 is possible but not how I’d do it in production. Nginx in front of Node.js gives you SSL termination, static file serving, caching, compression, rate limiting, and request buffering — things Node.js can do but doesn’t do as efficiently as a dedicated web server. Here’s
Nginx as a Reverse Proxy for Node.js Applications Read Post »
SSH is more than a remote shell. The tunneling capabilities — local forwarding, remote forwarding, and dynamic SOCKS proxying — are genuinely useful for accessing services that aren’t directly reachable, and I reach for them regularly. Local Port Forwarding Local forwarding creates a tunnel: you connect to a local port, and SSH forwards the connection
SSH Port Forwarding and Tunneling: Practical Use Cases Read Post »
LVM changed how I think about disk management. Before LVM, adding storage meant figuring out partitions, worrying about running out of space, and sometimes having to move data around to resize things. With LVM, extending a filesystem is usually a matter of three commands. Shrinking, snapshotting, moving storage between devices — all doable without downtime.
LVM on Linux: Logical Volume Management for Flexible Disk Storage Read Post »
For most of the last decade, the maximum validity period for a publicly trusted TLS certificate sat at 398 days — just over thirteen months. Long enough that a sysadmin could handle renewals with a calendar reminder and a few manual steps. That window is closing. In April 2025, the CA/Browser Forum passed a ballot
TLS Certificate Validity Is Dropping to 47 Days: Timeline, Impact, and How to Prepare Read Post »
rsync is one of those tools I reach for constantly. Backups, deployments, syncing configs across servers, copying large directory trees — it handles all of it well. The basic invocation is simple, but there are a few flags and patterns that make a huge difference once you know them. The Basic Idea rsync transfers files
Rsync for Backups and File Synchronization: How I Actually Use It Read Post »
Log files have a way of growing quietly until they fill up your disk at the worst possible moment. I’ve seen it happen more than once — a busy web server accumulating logs, nobody checking, and then one night the disk hits 100% and everything stops. Logrotate prevents this. It’s already installed on most Linux
Logrotate: Managing Log Files Before They Fill Your Disk Read Post »
Every time I set up a new VPS, I go through the same checklist. Some of it is obvious, some of it I learned the hard way, and some of it is just habit at this point. This isn’t a comprehensive security audit — it’s the practical stuff I do within the first hour of
Linux Server Hardening: What I Actually Do on Fresh VPS Installs Read Post »
Knowing how to find and manage processes is fundamental sysadmin work. It’s not glamorous, but it comes up constantly — debugging a runaway process eating CPU, finding what’s holding a port open, or tracing which process opened a particular file. ps: The Process Snapshot ps shows a snapshot of current processes. The options are confusing
Linux Process Management: ps, top, htop, and Managing Runaway Processes Read Post »
Cron is one of those tools that’s been around so long and is so widely used that most people learn just enough to make it work, then stop. But there are enough gotchas and useful features that it’s worth understanding properly. The Cron Daemon and Config Files crond (or cron on some systems) is the
Linux Cron Jobs: A Practical Guide Read Post »
Getting a wildcard certificate from Let’s Encrypt is a bit more involved than a regular single-domain cert. You can’t use an HTTP challenge for wildcards — Let’s Encrypt requires DNS validation, which means you need to create a TXT record to prove you own the domain. That adds complexity, but once it’s set up and
Let’s Encrypt Wildcard Certificates with DNS Challenge Read Post »