Physical Server Performance Bottlenecks: Solution Analyses and Improvement Methods

Introduction

Physical servers are critical for applications with high performance requirements. However, performance bottlenecks that occur over time can put system administrators in a difficult position. In this article, we will step by step examine common issues related to CPU and RAM consumption on physical servers, and how to diagnose and resolve them.

Identifying Performance Bottlenecks

In the first stage, we need to monitor resource consumption using a few commands to identify the bottleneck in the system. Execute the following commands by connecting to your server via SSH:

• top: This command shows the processes with the highest CPU consumption on the system.
• htop: Allows you to visually analyze your system resources with a more user-friendly interface. If not installed, you can install it using sudo apt install htop.
• dmesg: Used to check hardware errors and kernel messages.
• vmstat: Provides information about memory, processes, and CPU usage.
• iostat: Monitors input/output operations and disk performance.

CPU Consumption Issues

High CPU usage is often caused by heavy workloads or misconfigurations. You can follow the steps below to resolve the issue:

Step 1: Identify Problematic Processes

First, use the top or htop commands to identify which processes are consuming high CPU. For example:

top

Step 2: Optimize Processes

To optimize the problematic process, you can use the following commands:

• For Apache: Edit the configuration file at vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and reduce the MaxRequestWorkers value.
• For MySQL: Open the configuration file at vi /etc/my.cnf and increase the innodb_buffer_pool_size value.

Step 3: Restart Services

After making changes in the configuration file, you should restart the relevant services:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

sudo systemctl restart mysql

RAM Consumption Issues

High RAM usage can also lead to performance problems. You can follow the steps below to resolve this issue:

Step 1: Analyze Memory Usage

Check memory usage using free -m or vmstat commands.

Step 2: Stop Unnecessary Processes

To stop unnecessary processes consuming high memory:

kill -9 PID

Here, PID is the ID of the process you want to stop.

Step 3: Restart Services

After making changes related to RAM consumption, do not forget to restart the relevant services:

sudo systemctl restart 

Conclusion

Managing physical servers requires constant attention to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks. By following the steps outlined above, you can improve the performance of your physical server and ensure system stability.