System Administration & Cloud

Server configuration, cloud infrastructure (AWS, KVM, VirtualBox), virtualization, performance tuning, and system administration tools.

System Administration & Cloud

Optimizing Large File Uploads to S3 with AWS CLI
ByEric Ma Nov 29, 2015Apr 12, 2026

Install AWS CLI v2 through your system’s package manager for production deployments. On Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install awscli On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora: sudo dnf install awscli Or use the official installer directly: curl “https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip” -o “awscli-v2.zip” unzip awscli-v2.zip sudo ./aws/install Verify installation: aws –version Configure AWS CLI credentials Set up credentials interactively: aws configure…

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System Administration & Cloud

Measuring System Performance: Lessons from Ousterhout
ByEric Ma Sep 4, 2013Apr 12, 2026

John Ousterhout, a professor of computer science at Stanford, maintains a collection of “Favorite Sayings” grounded in decades of building real systems—RAMCloud, Tcl, and extensive work in distributed systems. These aren’t abstract principles. They’re lessons that apply directly to the work of building, debugging, and shipping software at scale. Optimize After Measurement, Not Before The…

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System Administration & Cloud

Enabling SEO-Friendly URLs in MediaWiki with Apache and Nginx
ByEric Ma Jul 15, 2013Apr 12, 2026

MediaWiki’s default URL structure — www.example.com/w/index.php?title=TITLE — works functionally but creates poor SEO signals and awkward shareable links. Clean URLs like www.example.com/w/TITLE improve search visibility, readability, and user experience while making pages easier to reference. LocalSettings.php Configuration Open LocalSettings.php in your MediaWiki root directory and add these settings: $wgScript = “/w/index.php”; $wgArticlePath = “/w/$1”; The…

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System Administration & Cloud

MySQL Database Connections in JSP: JDBC Setup and Connection Pooling
ByEric Ma Jul 13, 2013Apr 12, 2026

Connecting to MySQL from JSP requires the mysql-connector-j JDBC driver and proper connection handling. The old mysql-connector-java artifact is deprecated—switch to mysql-connector-j, which supports MySQL 8.0+ with modern SSL/TLS, authentication plugins, and performance improvements. Dependency Management Add mysql-connector-j via Maven or Gradle. Maven is standard for modern Java projects: <dependency> <groupId>com.mysql</groupId> <artifactId>mysql-connector-j</artifactId> <version>8.4.0</version> </dependency> For…

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System Administration & Cloud

Configuring Cloudflare DNS with DreamHost
ByEric Ma Jul 13, 2013Apr 12, 2026

Cloudflare is a widely-used CDN and DDoS mitigation service that caches content globally and improves performance. DreamHost offers native integration, though understanding the DNS setup—particularly for apex domains—is critical for avoiding routing issues. Quick Setup Through DreamHost Control Panel The fastest path for most domains: Log into your DreamHost account Navigate to Domains → Manage…

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System Administration & Cloud

Apache GZIP vs. Brotli: Setup and Testing Guide
ByEric Ma Jul 13, 2013Apr 12, 2026

HTTP compression reduces bandwidth usage and improves load times for clients. Apache’s mod_deflate and mod_brotli handle this transparently—the server compresses content before sending it, and modern browsers decompress it automatically. Enabling Compression via .htaccess Add this to your .htaccess file in the website root: # Enable DEFLATE compression <IfModule mod_deflate.c> AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain text/html text/xml…

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System Administration & Cloud

Reading Files into Strings in PHP: Performance and Security
ByEric Ma Jul 13, 2013Apr 12, 2026

PHP provides multiple approaches to read file contents into a string, ranging from simple one-liners to streaming methods for large files. Your choice depends on file size, memory constraints, and whether you need line-by-line processing. file_get_contents() — The Standard Approach The simplest and most common method is file_get_contents(): $content = file_get_contents(‘path/to/file.txt’); echo $content; This reads…

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System Administration & Cloud

Configuring Custom Error Pages on Apache and Nginx
ByEric Ma Jul 13, 2013Apr 12, 2026

Apache’s default 404 error page is generic and often displays hosting provider branding. Customizing it gives you control over the user experience when they land on missing pages. The same applies to other HTTP error responses like 403 Forbidden or 500 Internal Server Error. Apache: Using ErrorDocument Directive The ErrorDocument directive in Apache accepts two…

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System Administration & Cloud

How to Set Up 301 Redirects for Domain Migrations in Apache and Nginx
ByEric Ma Jul 13, 2013Apr 12, 2026

Moving a domain requires more than DNS changes. If you have existing traffic, backlinks, or search engine indexing pointing to your old domain, a proper 301 redirect ensures users and search engines find your content at the new location while preserving SEO rankings. Why 301 Redirects Matter A 301 (“Moved Permanently”) response tells browsers and…

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System Administration & Cloud

Safely Shutting Down All Xen Virtual Machines on a Server
ByEric Ma Jul 13, 2013Apr 12, 2026

When managing Xen Dom0 hosts, shutting down guest VMs (DomUs) before powering off the physical server is essential to prevent data loss and filesystem corruption. Modern Xen distributions (including Citrix Hypervisor and AWS infrastructure) still rely on this principle, though the tooling has evolved. Using xl for VM Shutdown Current Xen installations use xl rather…

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System Administration & Cloud

Automating Backups of Xen File-backed VMs
ByEric Ma Jul 13, 2013Apr 12, 2026

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System Administration & Cloud

How to Clone Xen DomU Virtual Machines
ByEric Ma Jul 13, 2013Apr 12, 2026

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System Administration & Cloud

CPU and Memory Performance: Xen Dom0 vs DomU Comparison
ByEric Ma Jul 13, 2013Apr 12, 2026

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