Linux Files System Encryption

Encryption of files on a server is often the last gate in keeping unauthorized users from gaining access to sensitive data. File-level encryption is prevalent with tools like PGP. Unfortunately file-level encryption still exposes the OS structure of a server to the hacker. Plus, managing the encryption/decryption of individual files can be expense from a system resource perspective. An alternative would be to encrypt the entire file system and perform the encryption/decryption at the file system level on the fly. (more…)

Load Balancing Email

Here’s a different approach on using DNS to distribute users across multiple email servers. Load Balancing Email

when web people think architecture

I don’t recall when or how I found highscalability.com but it’s one of the sites that I bookmark and review periodically. Finally, a website that caters to us application/server folks that need to know what it takes to build an environment that support gazillion users. (more…)

local & global load balancing on the cheap

Not many people know what LVS is. I ran World Health Organization’s public website (www.who.int) using a pair of Compaq DL360 servers running Linux Virtual Server, which is an open-source load-balancer. And guess what, during SARS, we saw over 14 million hits a day at the peak. While I don’t have the specific cps / concurrent conn numbers (we didn’t measure those), the boxes did just fine. (more…)

tuning apache and a different perspective on web app performance

Here’s another article that I can really relate to. Typically a standard install of Apache has lots of extra (often unused) features and won’t take full advantage of all system resources. There are all sorts of things you can do (like recompiling to support more concurrent connections, which is what I’ve had to do). (more…)

DNS design 101

A little dated but has a good background on DNS design. This is a must-know for anyone that deals with delivery of applications.

Domain Name System Design Considerations