DEV Community: Shannon Dias

Top 10 Linux Distros for Dedicated Servers in 2026 🐧

Shannon Dias — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 08:46:58 +0000

When you rent a dedicated server, the hardware spec sheet is only half the story. The Linux distribution you flash onto that bare metal dictates your security patch lifecycle, available software dependencies, and whether your automation scripts or control panels will even function correctly two years out.

Choosing the wrong upstream platform is an expensive mistake to fix once traffic hits production.

Here is a quick snapshot of how the server landscape shapes up in 2026 for production stacks:

⚡ The Heavy Hitters

Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS: The undisputed king for DevOps pipelines and rapid container deployment. Excellent community tutorials, though you'll need to account for Canonical's heavy reliance on Snaps.
Debian 12 "Bookworm": Ultra-lean, minimalist, and brutally stable. If you want a server that runs for years without demanding intervention, this is your baseline.
AlmaLinux 9 & Rocky Linux 9: The twin pillars of enterprise RHEL compatibility. Essential if you run cPanel/WHM or are still completing your migrations away from legacy CentOS 7 environments.
Oracle Linux 9: An overlooked powerhouse for high-availability setups, providing enterprise-grade live kernel patching (Ksplice) entirely for free.

🏢 Specialized Workloads

For specialized infrastructure providers, general-purpose distros won't cut it. Multi-tenant hosting environments running high-density accounts rely heavily on platforms like CloudLinux OS to enforce resource isolation (LVE) and virtualized filesystems (CageFS) at the OS level.

Don't pick an operating system purely out of habit. Analyze your support cycle expectations, documentation needs, and vendor-certification requirements before provisioning your bare metal hardware.

📖 For the full technical breakdown, support lifecycles, and direct comparison matrix, read more and visit the tutorials link: Fit Servers - Top 10 Linux Distros Guide

How to Change the Default SSH Port to Improve Security Safely

Shannon Dias — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 08:16:49 +0000

Every Linux server connected to the internet has something in common: within minutes of going live, automated bots are already knocking on port 22.

Changing your default SSH port won't make your server completely bulletproof, but it will immediately cut through the noise. Fewer failed login attempts means cleaner authentication logs and significantly less exposure to credential-stuffing scripts.

In this guide, we break down exactly how to transition to a non-standard port safely without accidentally locking yourself out of your environment.

🛠️ The Quick Reference Steps

Edit Config: Modify /etc/ssh/sshd_config and set Port [your-chosen-number].
Firewall First: Update UFW (sudo ufw allow [port]/tcp) or Firewalld before closing your active terminal.
SELinux Check: If you are running RHEL/Rocky Linux, you'll need to authorize the port via semanage.
Test: Always test the connection in a new window using ssh -p [port] user@ip before terminating your current session!

💡 For a deep dive into the exact commands, client-side configuration shortcuts, and advanced hardening tips, check out our full tutorial:

👉 Read the Complete Guide on Fit Servers

How to Install OpenLiteSpeed on a Dedicated Server (Ubuntu)

Shannon Dias — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 07:16:59 +0000

If you have been running Apache or Nginx on your dedicated server and hitting performance walls during traffic spikes, LiteSpeed is worth a serious look.

While Apache uses a process-per-request model that can quickly consume your server's RAM, OpenLiteSpeed (OLS) relies on an event-driven architecture. This means your bare-metal server can handle significantly more concurrent connections without breaking a sweat.

Why Choose OpenLiteSpeed?

Built-in LSCache: A server-level full-page cache with official plugins for WordPress, Magento, and more.
HTTP/3 and QUIC: Native support for modern protocols translates to faster page loads.
Zero Downtime Restarts: Update configs without dropping active connections.

What You Need to Get Started

To run this setup, you'll need a dedicated server running Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04, root/sudo access via SSH, and a basic firewall (UFW). You will also need to ensure ports 80 and 443 are currently free.

The Installation Process

Installing OLS involves adding the official LiteSpeed repository, configuring your firewall to open ports 8088 and 7080 (for the Web Admin Console), and installing LiteSpeed's customized PHP binaries (LSPHP 8.3).

Because developers need exact commands and precise configuration paths, I have documented the entire A-Z process, including setting up your first Virtual Host via the OLS Admin GUI.

Read the full step-by-step tutorial here and get your server optimized for high traffic today!

How to Check Server Resource Usage: CPU, RAM, and Disk Explained

Shannon Dias — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 06:06:04 +0000

Every developer has been there: your application slows down, API requests start timing out, or the container completely crashes.

When things go wrong, you don't always have a shiny APM or heavy third-party monitoring dashboard configured. Knowing how to drop into a raw SSH terminal or PowerShell session to diagnose the problem using built-in system tools is a superpower.

Here is a quick mental map of what you need to look for when inspecting your infrastructure:

1. CPU Saturation

High CPU usage isn't always caused by heavy calculations. Using utilities like top or htop, check your I/O wait (wa). If your CPU cores are idling but your I/O wait is high, your bottleneck isn't the processor—it's your disk storage struggling to keep up with reads and writes.

2. The RAM Illusion

Running free -h on a Linux box can be frightening because the "free" column looks incredibly low. But remember: Linux uses unallocated RAM for disk caching. The metric that actually dictates if your app is about to crash due to an Out-Of-Memory (OOM) error is the available column.

3. Disk Infrastructure Squeezes

When a local partition hits 90% storage capacity, databases throw errors and log writes stop dead. Beyond raw space (df -h), you must track Disk I/O utilization using tools like iostat -x 1 to ensure disk latency isn't dragging down application layer performance.

We put together a comprehensive, copy-paste-ready guide breaking down these exact parameters, complete with healthy operating thresholds and automated PowerShell scripts for Windows environments.

🔧 Read the full guide on Fit Servers:
https://www.fitservers.com/tutorials/howto/check-server-resource-usage-cpu-ram-disk/

The Strategic Advantage of UK Dedicated Servers for High-Performance Workloads

Shannon Dias — Sat, 23 May 2026 08:34:15 +0000

When architecting a tech stack for European or UK user bases, edge location is just as important as your codebase. At Fit Servers, our architectural team just published a comprehensive guide on why deploying bare metal in London provides unique engineering advantages.

Here are the key takeaways for developers and system architects:

⚡ Sub-10ms Latency & BGP Route Diversity

London is one of the most carrier-dense locations globally. By utilizing a server with direct LINX (London Internet Exchange) connectivity, your traffic avoids unnecessary transit hops. You’re peering directly with over 950 ASNs, meaning typical latency to UK users drops below 10ms. This is a game-changer for Core Web Vitals (specifically LCP) and high-frequency data applications.

🔒 UK GDPR & Data Sovereignty

With the implementation of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, storing user data offshore introduces massive compliance overhead. A UK dedicated server gives you physical, auditable data residency—essential if you are building FinTech, Healthcare, or Enterprise SaaS applications.

🚀 Hardware tailored to I/O

Whether you need 10Gbps uplinks for media distribution or heavy NVMe arrays for database reads/writes, localized bare metal outpaces virtualized cloud instances in raw throughput.

To dive deeper into the network architecture, storage configs, and DDOS mitigation strategies...
Read more by visiting the full blog: The Strategic Advantage of UK Dedicated Servers

DDR5 in Enterprise Servers: Theoretical vs. Real-World Gains

Shannon Dias — Sat, 23 May 2026 08:17:15 +0000

If you are provisioning enterprise infrastructure in 2026, you are likely looking at DDR5 platforms. Marketing materials will tell you it has 50% more raw bandwidth. But as engineers, we know that lab benchmarks rarely reflect production realities.

At Fit Servers, we decided to break down exactly what DDR5 does in real enterprise workloads.

What Actually Changed Architecturally?

DDR5 isn't just an overclocked DDR4. The architecture was overhauled to handle modern multi-core densities:

Sub-channels: Each DDR5 module contains two independent 40-bit sub-channels (32 data + 8 ECC). This vastly improves parallelism on small random access patterns—perfect for virtualization and microservices.
Power Delivery: Power Management ICs (PMIC) are now on the DIMM itself, dropping voltage to 1.1V and improving signal integrity for 24-slot dual-socket boards.

The Latency Myth

Seeing DDR5 starting at CL40 makes a lot of SysAdmins flinch compared to DDR4's CL22. However, because absolute latency is measured in time (not just cycles), DDR5 5600 at CL40 is approximately 14.3ns—nearly identical to DDR4, but with vastly wider pipes.

Workload Reality Check (The TL;DR)

Does the bandwidth matter for your specific deployment?

✅ AI / ML / Data Processing (Spark): Highly memory bandwidth-bound. Expect 15-30% gains.
🟨 OLTP Databases & Virtualization: Moderate gains (5-12%). Better density, but IOPS still limit you.
❌ Web Hosting & Caching (Redis/Memcached): Latency bound. Expect a negligible 1-4% gain.

Platform Differences: AMD vs. Intel

The CPU memory controller matters. AMD's EPYC platform utilizes 12 DDR5 channels per socket (up to 460.8 GB/s), giving it the edge in pure throughput. Intel Xeon 6 uses 8 channels, pushing higher per-channel speeds (up to 7200 MT/s) which favors latency-sensitive threads.

👉 Want the full deep-dive into the hardware economics and performance? Read the full article on our engineering blog: DDR5 RAM in Enterprise Servers: Real World Performance Gains

The Ultimate Guide to Hosting a Palworld Dedicated Server on Linux (High RAM Optimization)

Shannon Dias — Sat, 09 May 2026 11:24:13 +0000

Palworld is a massive multiplayer survival hit, but managing a server comes with a well-known technical challenge: severe memory leaks. As your world expands, the server's RAM usage skyrockets.

If you want a flawless multiplayer experience, you need to host a Palworld Dedicated Server on Linux using a machine equipped to handle massive memory loads (64GB+ RAM).

In this tutorial summary, we cover the essential sysadmin steps to optimize an Ubuntu server for Unreal Engine 5 game hosting.

The Architecture Problem

Palworld currently has unresolved memory leaks tied to UE5 and in-game pathfinding. As players build, the server retains object data in its active memory. Standard 16GB instances will inevitably trigger the Linux OOM killer. Over-provisioning hardware and scheduling memory dumps is required.

Core Optimizations

When setting up your Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 LTS environment, several structural steps are vital:

User Isolation: Never run SteamCMD or the game server as root. Always create a dedicated palworld user.
Swap Configuration: Even with 64GB RAM, a 16GB swap file acts as a critical overflow buffer.
Systemd Daemon: Creating a service ensures the game recovers gracefully.
Thread Optimization: Passing -useperfthreads, -NoAsyncLoadingThread, and -UseMultithreadForDS via the ExecStart parameter dramatically improves performance.
Cron Automation: Setting a daily cron job (0 4 * * * /bin/systemctl restart palworld) is currently the most effective memory leak mitigation strategy.

Hosting a massive world requires serious infrastructure.

For more details, visit the tutorial link: https://www.fitservers.com/tutorials/howto/host-palworld-dedicated-server-linux/

The Complete Guide to Hosting Multiple Websites on One Dedicated Server

Shannon Dias — Sat, 09 May 2026 10:26:02 +0000

If you are expanding your digital footprint, running a web agency, or managing an e-commerce portfolio, purchasing a separate hosting plan for every single website quickly becomes a logistical and financial nightmare.

The most powerful and cost-effective solution is to host multiple sites on a dedicated server.

By leveraging virtual hosts in Apache, you can route incoming traffic from multiple domain names into different directories on a single machine.

Why Consolidate on a Dedicated Server?

Resource Allocation: Utilize the full CPU, RAM, and bandwidth you are paying for, rather than letting resources sit idle.
Centralized Management: Updates, security patches, and backups are handled in one centralized environment.
Geographical SEO Advantages: Deploying dedicated servers in targeted regions ensures ultra-low latency across multiple regional domains simultaneously.

What You'll Learn

In our comprehensive guide, we walk you through the entire server setup from scratch, including:

Installing and configuring Apache on Ubuntu 22.04/20.04.
Creating isolated directory structures for domain1.com and domain2.com.
Setting up .conf Virtual Host files.
Securing all domains with Let's Encrypt SSL certificates.

If you are ready to stop overpaying for shared hosting and want to take control of your infrastructure...

🚀 Read the full step-by-step tutorial on Fit Servers

Bypassing Cloud Throttling: The Case for Bare-Metal Servers in Southeast Asia

Shannon Dias — Fri, 08 May 2026 06:52:44 +0000

If you are deploying applications targeting the APAC region—specifically Southeast Asia (SEA)—you have likely run into the dreaded "cloud wall." You start on a public cloud, traffic scales, and suddenly you are dealing with TCP bottlenecks, hypervisor overhead, and massive AWS/GCP egress bandwidth bills.

At Fit Servers, our technical team has been analyzing high-volume traffic routing in SEA, and the data points to one clear solution: Singapore Dedicated Servers.

Why Singapore? The Submarine Fiber Mesh
Unlike routing through Tokyo or Hong Kong, which adds thousands of physical miles to the data journey, Singapore is the primary landing hub for dozens of submarine cable systems, including the APG, SJC, and SEA-ME-WE cables.

This dense mesh of aquatic fiber optics allows for direct-routing, which yields massive latency drops across the region:

Singapore to Kuala Lumpur: ~5ms to 10ms

Singapore to Jakarta: ~15ms to 20ms

Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City: ~30ms to 40ms

Singapore to Manila: ~35ms to 45ms

The Problem with Cloud for High-Volume Data
Cloud vCPUs are time-sliced. When you need sustained, 100% CPU utilization for high-frequency trading algorithms, massive MySQL/PostgreSQL databases, or multiplayer game logic, the hypervisor overhead becomes a massive liability.

Furthermore, cloud providers in the APAC region charge exorbitant outbound data transfer fees. If you are pushing terabytes of high-volume media or game data, you are actively losing money.

The Bare-Metal Hardware Advantage
A dedicated bare-metal instance gives you complete control and exclusive access to the physical hardware. For enterprise-grade performance in SEA, your architecture should leverage:

100% Dedicated Resources: Direct access to the latest Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC processors without virtualization limits.

Enterprise NVMe Storage: Direct communication with the PCIe bus to prevent I/O bottlenecks during heavy database queries.

BGP Optimized Routing: Automatic traffic rerouting through Tier-1 transit providers (like Singtel, NTT) to ensure uninterrupted latency.

Unmetered Bandwidth: Flat-rate data transfer to bypass unpredictable cloud egress fees entirely.

If you are an engineer planning infrastructure for FinTech, Esports, or E-commerce in Southeast Asia, migrating to a dedicated environment is not just an upgrade; it is a necessity.

To read the full technical deep dive on architecting your SEA backend, visit the blog link:
Read more: Singapore Dedicated Servers: https://www.fitservers.com/blogs/singapore-dedicated-servers-sea-hosting/

How to Set Up a High-Performance Minecraft Server on Linux

Shannon Dias — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 08:45:35 +0000

If you've ever managed a Minecraft community, you know that block lag, random disconnects, and tick drops can ruin the experience. When you add heavy mods or scale your player base, cheap shared hosting quickly chokes.

The ultimate fix? Hosting a Minecraft server on Linux using a high-performance bare-metal dedicated server. By taking full control of your infrastructure, you ensure maximum uptime, dedicated resources, and ultimate customizability.

In our latest comprehensive guide, we walk you through the complete Linux Minecraft server setup.

What you will learn:

Preparing a secure Ubuntu/Debian or CentOS environment.
Installing the correct Java Runtime Environment (Java 21 for modern versions).
Creating automated start.sh scripts for RAM allocation.
Mastering the screen command for background processing.
Configuring UFW/Firewalld specifically for Minecraft (Port 25565).
Advanced optimization using PaperMC and Aikar's Flags.

Stop dealing with server lag and shared resources.

Read the full, step-by-step tutorial on Fit Servers here!

The Edge: Deploying Docker on Bare Metal vs. Virtual Machines

Shannon Dias — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 08:11:18 +0000

Imagine spending hours perfecting an application locally, only to have it break the moment you deploy it to your production server. If you are using standard VPS hosting, the agitation doesn't stop there. You are constantly battling the "hypervisor tax"—the invisible layer of virtualization that steals your CPU cycles and chokes your disk I/O.

By containerizing your applications and running them on a bare-metal dedicated server, you bypass the virtualization layer entirely. Because Docker doesn't need to emulate virtual hardware, you get:

100% Resource Allocation: Direct access to CPU and RAM.
Maximum Disk I/O: Crucial for containerized databases like Postgres or MySQL.
Lower Network Latency: Direct routing to the physical NIC.

We just published a comprehensive, step-by-step deployment tutorial over at Fit Servers.

What the tutorial covers:

Secure Server Prep: Configuring UFW and Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 LTS.
Official Docker Installation: Proper apt repository setup with GPG keys.
Docker Compose Architecture: Building a persistent 3-tier stack using Infrastructure as Code.
Reverse Proxying: Routing multiple domains to internal containers without port conflicts.
Resource Limiting: Enforcing CPU and memory limits inside your docker-compose.yml.

If you want to unlock true bare-metal Docker performance, check out the full guide with all the necessary CLI commands and YAML configurations.

👉 Read the full technical tutorial here

RAID Configurations Explained: Which One Fits Your Workload?

Shannon Dias — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 07:09:41 +0000

When architecting a high-performance environment, processors and RAM usually get the budget. But seasoned system administrators know that storage is almost always the primary bottleneck. If you are running a write-heavy database (like PostgreSQL or MongoDB) and your storage drives cannot feed data to the CPU fast enough, your processing power is wasted.

We just published a comprehensive guide over at Fit Servers breaking down enterprise storage configurations.

Key Takeaways from the article

Hardware vs Software RAID: Why true hardware RAID controllers with Flash-Backed Write Caches (FBWC) are mandatory for preventing database corruption during power loss.

The RAID 5 Write Penalty: Why RAID 5's XOR parity calculations can cripple write performance on DB servers.

RAID 10 Dominance: Why RAID 1+0 remains the undisputed king for enterprise virtualization and transactional databases.

NVMe + RAID: Why ultra-fast flash storage doesn't make redundancy obsolete.

If you are provisioning a new bare-metal server soon, make sure you choose the right storage foundation.

👉 Read the full technical deep-dive here