Dedicated Server Reviews

MySQLTuner v0.9.1 is now available! This long-awaited update includes bug fixes, feature enhancements, and compatibility improvements.

MySQLTuner now checks for fragmented tables
When deletes or updates are made on tables, MySQL will often leave holes behind that it hopes to fill in later. If the size and quantity keep climbing, the holes can cause performance degradation for writes and reads. Fragmentation can be corrected with OPTIMIZE TABLE, and the script recommends it if needed.

Fixed a bug where zero-length passwords cause authentication to repeat
The script will now allow you to have a zero-length password, and it won’t re-prompt for the password over and over again.

Fixed a wget 1.11 timestamp bug
This can cause the version check to fail if the .wgetrc has timestamps enabled.

Corrected a math error in the temporary table calculation
The script should now be able to more accurately determine the relative quantity of temporary tables created on disk.

Fixed an error when the status variable Open_tables returned zero
The divide by zero error has been corrected.

Added table cache changes in preparation for MySQL 6
It’s still in the early stages, but MySQLTuner should have full support for MySQL 6 by the time it reaches RC status.

Thanks for the contributions!
This update would not have been possible without help from Ville Skytta, Trent Hornibrook and Luuk Vosslamber.

To download the latest copy, visit the MySQLTuner page.

You may be thinking why do I want to block IP addresses from my dedicated server? If you have never run a dedicated server before, you might not be aware that there are people who attempt to hack entire servers to bring websites down. There are many types of server attacks, and one of the most popular can occur from a single dedicated IP address – a DdoS attack!

In order to subdue the attacker and ban them from coming back, you will need to block their IP address from your dedicated server entirely. Luckily, you can do this in one simple step.

Add the following code to your .htaccess file, which can be found in your web server’s document root directory. More than likely this is named public_html, httpdocs, or webdocs.

<Limit GET>
order deny,allow
deny from 209.23.123.110
</Limit>

Adding this to .htaccess will block a single IP across your entire website and server! Be aware though: spammers and hackers alike can change their IP addresses very easily and most IPs that come from a home computer, for example, are not static and may update often. You can always add more IPs to your server, but this really showcases the importance of having a workable managed hosting solution on your dedicated server.

I have been reading some great data about web host firms going green. Power from alternative energy sources, buying those carbon thingies. Wind, rain, gravity, solar winds, being more efficient, telecommuting, all those enchiladas.

The US Government is building a massive data center in the bottom of a quarry in West Virginia. After its complete, gravel will be back filled in and apparently natural water will circulate. A great way to off load all that data center heat and shield yourself from a nuclear incident at the same time, a twofer.  Green I would say.

At home we have gone greenish. My wife has me using those cloth bags at the grocery, holds 12 packs of Moosehead really well, square no sag, strong handles and some insulating properties. We use a sailboat vs. motorboat.

It is hard to find a way for a company like mine to go greener. The A/C is already up to 80, the hot water heater is turned off (In the summer you can do that in Florida) and we turn off the printer at the end of the business day.

So I want to buy a new green CAR…which is why I wrote this blog...so you would click on the word CAR.

We are all learning how to dump the box. 

More about Tom:

New Commerce Communications

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At HostingCon attend my M&A seminar "Flip that Hosting Company" 

I found myself in a peculiar situation last week. I’d been asked to downgrade a server from MySQL 4.1 to MySQL 3.23. Believe me, I tried to advise against the request, but I didn’t succeed.

I made a MySQL 3.23 compatible dump with --compatible=mysql323, but the dump came out with backticks around the database names. This works with some 3.23 versions, but it doesn’t work with others. Apparently RHEL 3’s MySQL 3.23 is one of those versions where it simply won’t work.

This sed line came in handy to strip the backticks from the USE lines in the dump:

sed -e "s/^USE \`\(.*\)\`/USE \1/g"