NetBay journal

Linux Administration

24 practical Linux Administration articles from Netbay Engineering — written for operators running Linux and Windows VPS in India.

24 articles in this topic

Automate zero-touch security updates on Debian/Ubuntu with strict maintenance time windows, automated reboots, and email alerts.

Configure kexec-tools, reserve crashkernel memory, and inspect vmcore memory dumps with the crash utility to diagnose server panics.

Master production log rotation on busy Linux nodes using copytruncate, postrotate daemon signaling, and zstd/gzip compression.

Harden production Linux servers and minimize idle memory by converting background services into on-demand systemd socket activations.

A step-by-step playbook for failed units: read status and exit codes, chase logs and coredumps, and fix the six most common systemd failure modes.

Keep a second key, a second sshd port, and a Web VNC console mindset so a bad sshd reload is an inconvenience, not a lockout on a Lucknow VPS.

Use systemctl edit and drop-in override.conf files to customize vendor units safely, so package upgrades never clobber your production changes.

Run ssh-audit against sshd, drop SHA-1 and CBC from the offer list, and keep a modern kex, cipher, and MAC set that still works with OpenSSH 9.

Have systemd hold your ports open: start listeners instantly, spawn services on first connection, and drop privileges without touching the socket.

Split sshd policy with Match User, Group, and Address so git, sftp, humans, and CI automation stop sharing one global sshd_config on the VPS.

Pick the right Restart= policy, tune RestartSec and start-rate limits, and build services that recover from crashes without paging a human at 3 a.m.

Keep -L, -R, and -D straight: local pulls a remote port home, remote publishes a lab port, SOCKS is a dynamic proxy you can still draw on paper.