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description
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server-management
Server management principles and decision-making. Process management, monitoring strategy, and scaling decisions. Teaches thinking, not commands.
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2026-02-27
Server Management
Server management principles for production operations.
Learn to THINK, not memorize commands.
1. Process Management Principles
Tool Selection
Scenario
Tool
Node.js app PM2 (clustering, reload)
Any app systemd (Linux native)
Containers Docker/Podman
Orchestration Kubernetes, Docker Swarm
Process Management Goals
Goal
What It Means
Restart on crash Auto-recovery
Zero-downtime reload No service interruption
Clustering Use all CPU cores
Persistence Survive server reboot
2. Monitoring Principles
What to Monitor
Category
Key Metrics
Availability Uptime, health checks
Performance Response time, throughput
Errors Error rate, types
Resources CPU, memory, disk
Alert Severity Strategy
Level
Response
Critical Immediate action
Warning Investigate soon
Info Review daily
Monitoring Tool Selection
Need
Options
Simple/Free
PM2 metrics, htop
Full observability
Grafana, Datadog
Error tracking
Sentry
Uptime
UptimeRobot, Pingdom
3. Log Management Principles
Log Strategy
Log Type
Purpose
Application logs Debug, audit
Access logs Traffic analysis
Error logs Issue detection
Log Principles
Rotate logs to prevent disk fillStructured logging (JSON) for parsingAppropriate levels (error/warn/info/debug)No sensitive data in logs
4. Scaling Decisions
When to Scale
Symptom
Solution
High CPU
Add instances (horizontal)
High memory
Increase RAM or fix leak
Slow response
Profile first, then scale
Traffic spikes
Auto-scaling
Scaling Strategy
Type
When to Use
Vertical Quick fix, single instance
Horizontal Sustainable, distributed
Auto Variable traffic
5. Health Check Principles
What Constitutes Healthy
Check
Meaning
HTTP 200 Service responding
Database connected Data accessible
Dependencies OK External services reachable
Resources OK CPU/memory not exhausted
Health Check Implementation
Simple: Just return 200
Deep: Check all dependencies
Choose based on load balancer needs
6. Security Principles
Area
Principle
Access SSH keys only, no passwords
Firewall Only needed ports open
Updates Regular security patches
Secrets Environment vars, not files
Audit Log access and changes
7. Troubleshooting Priority
When something's wrong:
Check if running (process status)Check logs (error messages)Check resources (disk, memory, CPU)Check network (ports, DNS)Check dependencies (database, APIs)
8. Anti-Patterns
❌ Don't✅ Do
Run as root
Use non-root user
Ignore logs
Set up log rotation
Skip monitoring
Monitor from day one
Manual restarts
Auto-restart config
No backups
Regular backup schedule
Remember: A well-managed server is boring. That's the goal.
When to Use
This skill is applicable to execute the workflow or actions described in the overview.
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