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I moved my domain to UpCloud (on the other side of the world) from Vultr (Sydney) and could not be happier with the performance.

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I moved my domain to UpCloud (on the other side of the world) from Vultr (Sydney) and could not be happier with the performance. Here is what I did to set up a complete Ubuntu 18.04 system (NGINX, PHP, MySQL, WordPress etc). This is not a paid review (just me documenting my steps over 2 days).

Background (CPanel hosts)

In 1999 I hosted my first domain (www.fearby.com) on a host in Seattle (for $10 USD a month), the host used CPanel and all was good.  After a decade I was using the domain more for online development and the website was now too slow (I think I was on dial-up or ADSL 1 at the time). I moved my domain to an Australian host (for $25 a month).

After 8 years the domain host was sold and performance remained mediocre. After another year the new host was sold again and performance was terrible.

I started receiving Resource Limit Is Reached warnings (basically this was a plot by the new CPanel host to say “Pay us more and this message will go away”).

Page load times were near 30 seconds.

cpenal_usage_exceeded

The straw that broke the camel’s back was their demand of $150/year for a dodgy SSL certificate.

I needed to move to a self-managed server where I was in control.

Buying a Domain Name

Buy a domain name from Namecheap here.

Domain names for just 88 cents!

Self Managed Server

I found a good web IDE ( http://www.c9.io/ ) that allowed me to connect to a cloud VM.  C9 allowed me to open many files and terminal windows and reconnect to them later. Don’t get excited, though, as AWS has purchased C9 and it’s not the same.

C9 IDE

C9 IDE

I spun up a Digital Ocean Server at the closest data centre in Singapore. Here was my setup guide creating a Digital Ocean VM, connecting to it with C9 and configuring it. I moved my email to G Suite and moved my WordPress to Digital Ocean (other guides here and here).

I was happy since I could now send emails via CLI/code, set up free SSL certs, add second domain email to G Suite and Secure G Suite. No more usage limit errors either.

Self-managing servers require more work but it is more rewarding (flexible, faster and cheaper).  Page load times were now near 20 seconds (10-second improvement).

Latency Issue

Over 6 months, performance on Digital Ocean (in Singapore) from Australia started to drop (mentioned here).  I tried upgrading the memory but that did not help (latency was king).

Moved the website to Australia

I moved my domain to Vultr in Australia (guide here and here). All was good for a year until traffic growth started to increase.

Blog Growth

I tried upgrading the memory on Vultr and I setup PHP child workers, set up Cloudflare.

GT Metrix scores were about a “B” and Google Page Speed Scores were in the lower 40’s. Page loads were about 14 seconds (5-second improvement).

Tweaking WordPress

I set up an image compression plugin in WordPress then set up a cloud image compression and CDN Plugin from the same vendor.  Page Speed info here.

GT Metrix scores were now occasionally an “A” and Page Speed scores were in the lower 20’s. Page loads were about 3-5 seconds (10-second improvement).

A mixed bag from Vultr (more optimisation and performance improvements were needed).

This screenshot is showing poor www.gtmetrix.com scores , pool google page speed index scores and upgrading from 1GB to 2GB memory on my server.

Google Chrome Developer Console Audit Results on Vultr hosted website were not very good (I stopped checking as nothing helped).

This is a screenshot showing poor site performance (screenshot taken in Google Dev tools audit feature)

The problem was the Vultr server (400km away in Sydney) was offline (my issue) and everything above (adding more memory, adding 2x CDN’s (EWWW and Cloudflare), adding PHP Child workers etc) did not seem to help???

Enter UpCloud…

Recently, a friend sent a link to a blog article about a host called “UpCloud” who promised “Faster than SSD” performance.  This can’t be right: “Faster than SSD”? I was intrigued. I wanted to check it out as I thought nothing was faster than SSD (well, maybe RAM).

I signed up for a trial and ran a disk IO test (read the review here) and I was shocked. It’s fast. Very fast.

Summary: UpCloud was twice as fast (Disk IO and CPU) as Vultr (+ an optional $4/m firewall and $3/m for 1x backup).

This is a screenshot showing Vultr.com servers getting half the read and write disk io performance compared to upcloud.com.

fyi: Labels above are K Bytes per second. iozone loops through all file size from 4 KB to 16,348 KB and measures through the reads per second. To be honest, the meaning of the numbers doesn’t interest me, I just want to compare apples to apples.

This is am image showing iozone results breakdown chart (kbytes per sec on vertical axis, file size in horizontal axis and transfer size on third access)

(image snip from http://www.iozone.org/ which explains the numbers)

I might have to copy my website on UpCloud and see how fast it is.

Where to Deploy and Pricing

UpCloud Pricing: https://www.upcloud.com/pricing/

UpCloud Pricing

UpCloud does not have a data centre in Australia yet so why choose UpCloud?

Most of my site’s visitors are based in the US and UpCloud have disk IO twice as fast as Vultr (win-win?).  I could deploy to Chicago?

This image sows most of my visitors are in the US

My site’s traffic is growing and I need to ensure the site is fast enough in the future.

This image shows that most of my sites visitors are hitting my site on week days.

Creating an UpCloud VM

I used a friend’s referral code and signed up to create my first VM.

FYI: use my Referral code and get $25 free credit.  Sign up only takes 2 minutes.

https://www.upcloud.com/register/?promo=D84793

When you click the link above you will receive 25$ to try out serves for 3 days. You can exit his trail and deposit $10 into UpCloud.

Trial Limitations

The trial mode restrictions are as following:

* Cloud servers can only be accessed using SSH, RDP, HTTP or HTTPS protocols
* Cloud servers are not allowed to send outgoing e-mails or to create outbound SSH/RDP connections
* The internet connection is restricted to 100 Mbps (compared to 500 Mbps for non-trial accounts)
* After your 72 hours free trial, your services will be deleted unless you make a one-time deposit of $10

UpCloud Links

The UpCloud support page is located here: https://www.upcloud.com/support/

More UpCloud links to read:

Signing up to UpCloud

Navigate to https://upcloud.com/signup and add your username, password and email address and click signup.

New UpCloud Signup Page

Add your address and payment details and click proceed (you don’t need to pay anything ($1 may be charged and instantly refunded to verify the card)

Add address and payment details

That’s it, check yout email.

Signup Done

Look for the UpCloud email and click https://my.upcloud.com/

Check Email

Now login

Login to UpCloud

Now I can see a dashboard 🙂

UpCloud Dashboard

I was happy to see 24/7 support is available.

This image shows the www.upcloud.com live chat

I opted in for the new dashboard

UpCloud new new dashboard

Deploy My First UpCloud Server

This is how I deployed a server.

Note: If you are going to deploy a server consider using my referral code and get $25 credit for free.

Under the “deploy a server” widget I named the server and chose a location (I think I was supposed to use an FQDN name -e.g., “fearby.com”). The deployment worked though. I clicked continue, then more options were made available:

  1. Enter a short server description.
  2. Choose a location (Frankfurt, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Singapore, London and Chicago)
  3. Choose the number of CPU’s and amount of memory
  4. Specify disk number/names and type (MaxIOPS or HDD).
  5. Choose an Operating System
  6. Select a Timezone
  7. Define SSH Keys for access
  8. Allowed login methods
  9. Choose hardware adapter types
  10. Where the send the login password

Deploy Server

FYI: How to generate a new SSH Key (on OSX or Ubuntu)

Output

Did the key export? (yes)

> /temp# ls /temp/ -al
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 9 15:33 .
> drwxr-xr-x 27 root root 4096 Jun 8 14:25 ..
> -rw——- 1 user user 1766 Jun 9 15:33 example_rsa
> -rw-r–r– 1 user user 396 Jun 9 15:33 example_rsa.pub

“example_rsa” is the private key and “example_rsa.pub “is the public key.

  • The public key needs to be added to the server to allow access.
  • The private key needs to be added to any local ssh program used for remote access.

Initialisation script (after deployment)

I was pleased to see an initialization script section that calls actions after the server is deployed. I configured the initialisation script to pull down a few GB of backups from my Vultr website in Sydney (files now removed).

This was my Initialisation script:

Confirm and Deploy

I clicked “Confirm and deploy” but I had an alert that said trial mode can only deploy servers up to 1024MB of memory.

This image shows I cant deploy servers with 2/GB in trial modeExiting UpCloud Trial Mode

I opened the dashboard and clicked My Account then Billing, I could see the $25 referral credit but I guess I can’t use that in Trial.

I exited trial mode by depositing $10 (USD).

View Billing Details

Make a manual 1-time deposit of $10 to exit trial mode.

Deposit $10 to exit the trial

FYI: Server prices are listed below (or view prices here).

UpCloud Pricing

Now I can go back and deploy the server with the same settings above (1x CPU, 2GB Memory, Ubuntu 18.04, MaxIOPS Storage etc)

Deployment takes a few minutes and depending on how you specified a password may be emailed to you.

UpCloud Server Deployed

The server is now deployed; now I can connect to it with my SSH program (vSSH).  Simply add the server’s IP, username, password and the SSH private key (generated above) to your ssh program of choice.

fyi: The public key contents start with “ssh-rsa”.

This image shows me connecting to my sever via ssh

I noticed that the initialisation script downloaded my 2+GB of files already. Nice.

UpCloud Billing Breakdown

I can now see on the UpCloud billing page in my dashboard that credit is deducted daily (68c); at this rate, I have 49 days credit left?

Billing Breakdown

I can manually deposit funds or set up automatic payments at any time 🙂

UpCloud Backup Options

You do not need to setup backups but in case you want to roll back (if things stuff up), it is a good idea. Backups are an additional charge.

I have set up automatic daily backups with an auto deletion after 2 days

To view backup scheduled click on your deployed server then click backup

List of UpCloud Backups

Note: Backups are charged at $0.056 for every GB stored – so $5.60 for every 100GB per month (half that for 50GB etc)

You can take manual backups at any time (and only be charged for the hour)

UpCloud Firewall Options

I set up a firewall at UpCloud to only allow the minimum number of ports (UpCloud DNS, HTTP, HTTPS and My IP to port 22).  The firewall feature is charged at $0.0056 an hour ($4.03 a month)

I love the ability to set firewall rules on incoming, destination and outgoing ports.

To view your firewall click on your deployed server then click firewall

UpCloud firewall

Update: I modified my firewall to allow inbound ICMP (IPv4/IPv6) and UDP (IPv4/IPv6) packets.

(Note: Old firewall screenshot)

Firewall Rules Allow port 80, 443 and DNS

Because my internet provider has a dynamic IP, I set up a VPN with a static IP and whitelisted it for backdoor access.

Local Ubuntu ufw Firewall

I duplicated the rules in my local ufw (2nd level) firewall (and blocked mail)

UpCloud Download Speeds

I pulled down a 1.8GB Ubuntu 18.08 Desktop ISO 3 times from gigenet.com and the file downloaded in 32 seconds (57MB/sec). Nice.

Install Common Ubuntu Packages

I installed common Ubuntu packages.

Timezone

I checked the server’s time (I thought this was auto set before I deployed)?

I reset the time to Australia/Sydney.

Now the timezone is set 🙂

Shell History

I increased the shell history.

SSH Login

I created a ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file and added my SSH public key to allow password-less logins.

I added my pubic ssh key, then exited the ssh session and logged back in. I can now log in without a password.

Install NGINX

nginx/1.14.0 is now installed.

A quick GT Metrix test.

This image shows awesome static nginx performance ratings of of 99%

Install MySQL

Run these commands to install and secure MySQL.

Securing the MySQL server deployment.
> Would you like to setup VALIDATE PASSWORD plugin?: n
> New password: **********************************************
> Re-enter new password: **********************************************
> Remove anonymous users? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : y
> Disallow root login remotely? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : y
> Remove test database and access to it? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : y
> Reload privilege tables now? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : y
> Success.

I disabled the validate password plugin because I hate it.

MySQL Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.7.22 is now installed.

Set MySQL root login password type

Set MySQL root user to authenticate via “mysql_native_password”. Run the “mysql” command.

Now let’s set the root password authentication method to “mysql_native_password”

Check authentication method.

Now we need to flush permissions.

Done.

Install PHP

Install PHP 7.2

PHP 7.2.5, Zend Engine v3.2.0 with Zend OPcache v7.2.5-1 is now installed. Do update PHP frequently.

I made the following changes in /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini

> cgi.fix_pathinfo=0
> max_input_vars = 1000
> memory_limit = 1024M
> max_file_uploads = 20M
> post_max_size = 20M

Install PHP Modules

sudo apt-get install php-pear php7.2-curl php7.2-dev php7.2-mbstring php7.2-zip php7.2-mysql php7.2-xml

Install PHP FPM

Configure PHP FPM config.

Edit /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini

> cgi.fix_pathinfo=0
> max_input_vars = 1000
> memory_limit = 1024M
> max_file_uploads = 20M
> post_max_size = 20M

Reload php sudo service.

Install PHP Modules

Configuring NGINX

If you are not comfortable editing NGINX config files read here, here and here.

I made a new “www root” folder, set permissions and created a default html file.

I edited the “root” key in “/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default” file and set the root a new location (e.g., “/www-root”)

I added these performance tweaks to /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

> worker_cpu_affinity auto;
> worker_rlimit_nofile 100000

I add the following lines to “http {” section in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Check NGINX Status

Install Open SSL that supports TLS 1.3

This is a work in progress. The steps work just fine for me on Ubuntu 16.04. but not Ubuntu 18.04.?

Installing Adminer MySQL GUI

I will use the PHP based Adminer MySQL GUI to export and import my blog from one server to another. All I needed to do is install it on both servers (simple 1 file download)

Use Adminer to Export My Blog (on Vultr)

On the original server open Adminer (http) and..

  1. Login with the MySQL root account
  2. Open your database
  3. Choose “Save” as the output
  4. Click on Export

This image shows the export of the wordpress adminer page

Save the “.sql” file.

I used Adminer on the UpCloud server to Import My Blog

FYI: Depending on the size of your database backup you may need to temporarily increase your upload and post sizes limits in PHP and NGINX before you can import your database.

Edit /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini
> max_file_uploads = 100M
> post_max_size =100M

And Edit: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
> client_max_body_size 100M;

Don’t forget to reload NGINX config and restart NGINX and PHP. Take note of the maximum allowed file size in the screenshot below. I temporarily increased my upload limits to 100MB in order to restore my 87MB blog.

Now I could open Adminer on my UpCloud server.

  1. Create a new database
  2. Click on the database and click Import
  3. Choose the SQL file
  4. Click Execute to import it

Import MuSQL backup with Adminer

Don’t forget to create a user and assign permissions (as required – check your wp-config.php file).

Import MySQL Database

Tip: Don’t forget to lower the maximum upload file size and max post size after you import your database,

Cloudflare DNS

I use Cloudflare to manage DNS, so I need to tell it about my new server.

You can get your server’s IP details from the UpCloud dashboard.

Find IP

At Cloudflare update your DNS details to point to the server’s new IPv4 (“A Record”) and IPv6 (“AAAA Record”).

Cloudflare DNS

Domain Error

I waited an hour and my website was suddenly unavailable.  At first, I thought this was Cloudflare forcing the redirection of my domain to HTTP (that was not yet set up).

DNS Not Replicated Yet

I chatted with UpCloud chat on their webpage and they kindly assisted me to diagnose all the common issues like DNS values, DNS replication, Cloudflare settings and the error was pinpointed to my NGINX installation.  All NGINX config settings were ok from what we could see?  I uninstalled NGINX and reinstalled it (and that fixed it). Thanks UpCloud Support 🙂

Reinstalled NGINX

I reinstalled NGINX and reconfigured /etc/nginx/nginx.conf (I downloaded my SSL cert from my old server just in case).

Here is my /etc/nginx/nginx.conf file.

Here is my /etc/nginx/sites-available/default file (fyi, I have not fully re-setup TLS 1.3 yet so I commented out the settings)

SSL Labs SSL Certificate Check

All good thanks to the config above.

SSL Labs

Install WP-CLI

I don’t like setting up FTP to auto-update WordPress plugins. I use the WP-CLI tool to manage WordPress installations by the command line. Read my blog here on using WP-CLI.

Download WP-CLI

Move WP-CLI to the bin folder as “wp”

Test wp

Update WordPress Plugins

Now I can run “wp plugin update” to update all WordPress plugins

Update WordPress Core

WordPress core file can be updated with “wp core update“

Troubleshooting: Use the flag “–allow-root “if wp needs higher access (unsafe action though).

Install PHP Child Workers

I edited the following file to setup PHP child workers /etc/php/7.2/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

Changes

> pm = dynamic
> pm.max_children = 40
> pm.start_servers = 15
> pm.min_spare_servers = 5
> pm.max_spare_servers = 15
> pm.process_idle_timeout = 30s;
> pm.max_requests = 500;
> php_admin_value[error_log] = /var/log/www-fpm-php.www.log
> php_admin_value[memory_limit] = 512M

Restart PHP

Test NGINX config, reload NGINX config and restart NGINX

Output (14 workers are ready)

Memory Tweak (set at your own risk)

vm.swappiness = 1

Setting swappiness to a value of 1 all but disables the swap file and tells the Operating System to aggressively use ram, a value of 10 is safer. Only set this if you have enough memory available (and free).

Possible swappiness settings:

> vm.swappiness = 0 Swap is disabled. In earlier versions, this meant that the kernel would swap only to avoid an out of memory condition when free memory will be below vm.min_free_kbytes limit, but in later versions, this is achieved by setting to 1.[2]> vm.swappiness = 1 Kernel version 3.5 and over, as well as Red Hat kernel version 2.6.32-303 and over: Minimum amount of swapping without disabling it entirely.
> vm.swappiness = 10 This value is sometimes recommended to improve performance when sufficient memory exists in a system.[3]
> vm.swappiness = 60 The default value.
> vm.swappiness = 100 The kernel will swap aggressively.

The “htop” tool is a handy memory monitoring tool to “top”

Also, you can use good old “watch” command to show near-live memory usage (auto-refreshes every 2 seconds)

Script to auto-clear the memory/cache

As a habit, I am setting up a cronjob to check when free memory falls below 100MB, then the cache is automatically cleared (freeing memory).

Script Contents: clearcache.sh

I set the cronjob to run every 15 mins, I added this to my cronjob.

Sample log output

I will check the log (/scripts/clearcache.log) in a few days and view the memory trends.

After 1/2 a day Ubuntu 18.04 is handling memory just fine, no externally triggered cache clears have happened 🙂

Free memory over time

I used https://crontab.guru/every-hour to set the right schedule in crontab.

I rebooted the VM.

Update: I now use Nixstats monitoring

Swap File

FYI: Here is a handy guide on viewing swap file usage here. I’m not using swap files so it is only an aside.

After the system rebooted I checked if the swappiness setting was active.

Yes, swappiness is set.

File System Tweaks – Write Back Cache (set at your own risk)

First, check your disk name and file system

Take note of your disk name (e.g vda1)

I used TuneFS to enable writing data to the disk before writing to the journal. tunefs is a great tool for setting file system parameters.

Warning (snip from here): “I set the mode to journal_data_writeback. This basically means that data may be written to the disk before the journal. The data consistency guarantees are the same as the ext3 file system. The downside is that if your system crashes before the journal gets written then you may lose new data — the old data may magically reappear.“

Warning this can corrupt your data. More information here.

I ran this command.

I edited my fstab to append the “writeback,noatime,nodiratime” flags for my volume after a reboot.

Edit FS Tab:

I added “writeback,noatime,nodiratime” flags to my disk options.

Updating Ubuntu Packages

Show updatable packages.

Update Packages.

Unattended Security Updates

Read more on Ubuntu 18.04 Unattended upgrades here, here and here.

Install Unattended Upgrades

Enable Unattended Upgrades.

Now I configure what packages not to auto-update.

Edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades

Find “Unattended-Upgrade::Package-Blacklist” and add packages that you don’t want automatically updated, you may want to manually update these (and monitor updates).

I prefer not to auto-update critical system apps (I will do this myself).

FYI: You can find installed packages by running this command:

Enable automatic updates by editing /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades

Edit the number at the end (the number is how many days to wait before updating) of each line.

> APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists “1”;
> APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages “1”;
> APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval “7”;
> APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade “1”;

Set to “0” to disable automatic updates.

The results of unattended-upgrades will be logged to /var/log/unattended-upgrades

Update packages now.

Almost done.

I Rebooted

GT Metrix Score

I almost fell off my chair. It’s an amazing feeling hitting refresh in GT Metrix and getting sub-2-second score consistently (and that is with 17 assets loading and 361KB of HTML content)

0.9sec load times

WebPageTest.org Test Score

Nice. I am not sure why the effective use of CDN has an X rating as I have the EWWW CDN and Cloudflare. First Byte time is now a respectable “B”, This was always bad.

Update: I found out the longer you set cache delays in Cloudflare the higher the score.

Web Page Test

GT Metrix has a nice historical breakdown of load times (night and day).

Upcloud Site Speed in GTMetrix

Google Page Speed Insight Desktop Score

I benchmarked with https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

This will help with future SEO rankings. It is well known that Google is pushing fast servers.

100% Desktop page speed score

Google Chrome 70 Dev Console Audit (Desktop)

100% Chrome Audit Score

This is amazing, I never expected to get this high score.  I know Google like (and are pushing) sub-1-second scores.

My site is loading so well it is time I restored some old features that were too slow on other servers

  • I disabled Lazy loading of images (this was not working on some Android devices)
  • I re-added the News Widget and news images.

GTMetrix and WebpageTest sores are still good (even after adding bloat)

Benchmarks are still good

My WordPress site is not really that small either

Large website

FYI: WordPress Plugins I use.

These are the plugins I use.

How I use these plugins to speed up my site.

  • I use EWWW Image Optimizer plugin to auto-compress my images and to provide a CDN for media asset deliver (pre-Cloudflare). Learn more about ExactDN and EWWW.io here.
  • I use Autoptimize plugin to optimise HTML/CSS/JS and ensure select assets are on my EWWW CDN. This plugin also removes WordPress Emojis, removed the use of Google Fonts, allows you to define pre-configured domains, Async Javascript-files etc.
  • I use BJ Lazy Load to prevent all images in a post from loading on load (and only as the user scrolls down the page).
  • GTmetrix for WordPress and Cloudflare plugins are for information only?
  • I use WP-Optimize to ensure my database is healthy and to disable comments/trackbacks and pingbacks.

Let’s Test UpCloud’s Disk IO in Chicago

Looks good to me, Read IO is a little bit lower than UpCloud’s Singapore data centre but still, it’s faster than Vultr.  I can’t wait for more data centres to become available around the world.

Why is UpCloud Disk IO so good?

I asked UpCloud on Twitter why the Disk IO was so good.

  • “MaxIOPS is UpCloud’s proprietary block-storage technology. MaxIOPS is physically redundant storage technology where all customer’s data is located in two separate physical devices at all times. UpCloud uses InfiniBand (!) network to connect storage backends to compute nodes, where customers’ cloud servers are running. All disks are enterprise-grade SSD’s. And using separate storage backends, it allows us to live migrate our customers’ cloud servers freely inside our infrastructure between compute nodes – whether it be due to hardware malfunction (compute node) or backend software updates (example CPU vulnerability and immediate patching).“

My Answers to Questions to support

Q1) What’s the difference between backups and snapshots (a Twitter user said Snapshots were a thing)

A1) Backups and snapshots are the same things with our infrastructure.

Q2) What are charges for backup of a 50GB drive?

A2) We charge $0.06 / GB of the disk being captured. But capture the whole disk, not just what was used. So for a 50GB drive, we charge $0.06 * 50 = $3/month. Even if 1GB were only used.

  • Support confirmed that each backup is charged (so 5 times manual backups are charged 5 times). Setting up a daily auto backup schedule for 2 weeks would create 14 billable backup charges.
  • I guess a 25GB server will be $1.50 a month

Q3) What are data charges if I go over my 2TB quota?

A3) Outgoing data charges are $0.056/GB after the pre-configured allowance.

Q4) What happens if my balance hits $0?

A4) You will get notification of low account balance 2 weeks in advance based on your current daily spend. When your balance reaches zero, your servers will be shut down. But they will still be charged for. You can automatically top-up if you want to assign a payment type from your Control Panel. You deposit into your balance when you want. We use a prepaid model of payment, so you need to top up before using, not billing you after usage. We give you lots of chances to top-up.

Support Tips

  • One thing to note, when deleting servers (CPU, RAM) instances, you get the option to delete the storages separately via a pop-up window. Choose to delete permanently to delete the disk, to save credit. Any disk storage lying around even unattached to servers will be billed.
  • Charges are in USD.

I think it’s time to delete my domain from Vultr in Sydney.

Deleted my Vultr domain

I deleted my Vultr domain.

Delete Vultr Server

Done.

More Reading on UpCloud

https://www.upcloud.com/documentation/faq/

UpCloud Server Status

http://status.upcloud.com

Check out my new guide on Nixstats for awesome monitoring

What I would like

  1. Ability to name individual manual backups (tag with why I backed up).
  2. Ability to push user-defined data from my VM to the dashboard
  3. Cheaper scheduled backups
  4. Sydney data centres (one day)

Update: Post UpCloud Launch Tweaks (Awesome)

I had a look at https://www.webpagetest.org/ results to see where else I can optimise webpage delivery.

Optimisation Options

Disable dasjhicons.min.css (for unauthenticated WordPress users).

Find functions.php in the www root

Edit functions.php

Add the following

// Remove dashicons in frontend for unauthenticated users
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'bs_dequeue_dashicons' );
function bs_dequeue_dashicons() {
    if ( ! is_user_logged_in() ) {
        wp_deregister_style( 'dashicons' );
    }
}

HTTP2 Push

I added http2 to my listening servers

I tested a http2 push page by defining this in /etc/nginx/sites-available/default 

Once I tested that push (demo here) was working I then defined two files to push that were being sent from my server

I used the WordPress Plugin Autoptimize to remove Google font usage (this removed a number of files being loaded when my page loads).

I used the WordPress Plugin WP-Optimize plugin into to remove comments and disable pingbacks and trackbacks.

WordPress wp-config.php tweaks

Add 2FA Authentication to server logins.

I recently checked out YubiCo YubiKeys and I have secured my Linux servers with 2FA prompts at login. Read the guide here. I secured my WordPress too.

Tweaks Todo

  • Compress placeholder BJ Lazy Load Image (plugin is broken)
  • Solve 2x Google Analytics tracker redirects (done, switched to Matomo)

Conclusion

I love UpCloud’s fast servers, give them a go (use my link and get $25 free credit).

I love Cloudflare for providing a fast CDN.

I love ewww.io’s automatic Image Compression and Resizing plugin that automatically handles image optimisations and pre Cloudflare/first hit CDN caching.

Read my post about server monitoring with Nixstats here.

Let the results speak for themselves (sub <1 second load times).

Results

I hope this guide helps someone.

Please consider using my referral code and get $25 credit for free.

https://www.upcloud.com/register/?promo=D84793

2020 Update. I have stopped using Putty and WinSCP. I now use MobaXterm (a tabbed SSH client for Windows) as it is way faster than WinSCP and better than Putty. Read my review post of MobaXTerm here.

Ask a question or recommend an article

[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

Revision History

v2.1 Newer GTMetrix scores

v2.0 New UpCloud UI Update and links to new guides.

v1.9 Spelling and grammar

v1.8 Trial mode gotcha (deposit money ASAP)

v1.7 Added RSA Private key info

v1.7 – Added new firewall rules info.

v1.6 – Added more bloat to the site, still good.

v1.5 Improving Accessibility

v1.4 Added Firewall Price

v1.3 Added wp-config and plugin usage descriptions.

v1.2 Added GTMetrix historical chart.

v1.1 Fixed free typos and added final conclusion images.

v1.0 Added final results

v0.9 added more tweaks (http2 push, removing unwanted files etc)

v0.81 Draft  – Added memory usage chart and added MaxIOPS info from UpCloud.

v0.8 Draft post.

I set the cronjob to run every 15 mins, I added this to my cronjob.

 

Sample log output

 

I will check the log (/scripts/clearcache.log) in a few days and view the memory trends.

After 1/2 a day Ubuntu 18.04 is handling memory just fine, no externally triggered cache clears have happened 🙂

Free memory over time

I used https://crontab.guru/every-hour to set the right schedule in crontab.

I rebooted the VM.

Update: I now use Nixstats monitoring

Swap File

FYI: Here is a handy guide on viewing swap file usage here. I’m not using swap files so it is only an aside.

After the system rebooted I checked if the swappiness setting was active.

 

Yes, swappiness is set.

File System Tweaks – Write Back Cache (set at your own risk)

First, check your disk name and file system

 

Take note of your disk name (e.g vda1)

I used TuneFS to enable writing data to the disk before writing to the journal. tunefs is a great tool for setting file system parameters.

Warning (snip from here): “I set the mode to journal_data_writeback. This basically means that data may be written to the disk before the journal. The data consistency guarantees are the same as the ext3 file system. The downside is that if your system crashes before the journal gets written then you may loose new data — the old data may magically reappear.“

Warning this can corrupt your data. More information here.

I ran this command.

 

I edited my fstab to append the “writeback,noatime,nodiratime” flags for my volume after a reboot.

Edit FS Tab:

 

I added “writeback,noatime,nodiratime” flags to my disk options.

 

Updating Ubuntu Packages

Show updatable packages.

 

Update Packages.

 

Unattended Security Updates

Read more on Ubuntu 18.04 Unattended upgrades here, here and here.

Install Unattended Upgrades

 

Enable Unattended Upgrades.

 

Now I configure what packages not to auto update.

Edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades

Find “Unattended-Upgrade::Package-Blacklist” and add packages that you don’t want automatically updated, you may want to manually update these (and monitor updates).

I prefer not to auto-update critical system apps (I will do this myself).

 

FYI: You can find installed packages by running this command:

 

Enable automatic updates by editing /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades

Edit the number at the end (the number is how many days to wait before updating) of each line.

> APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists “1”;
> APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages “1”;
> APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval “7”;
> APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade “1”;

Set to “0” to disable automatic updates.

The results of unattended-upgrades will be logged to /var/log/unattended-upgrades

Update packages now.

 

Almost done.

I Rebooted

GT Metrix Score

I almost fell off my chair. It’s an amazing feeling hitting refresh in GT Metrix and getting sub-2-second score consistently (and that is with 17 assets loading and 361KB of HTML content)

0.9sec load times

WebPageTest.org Test Score

Nice. I am not sure why the effective use of CDN has an X rating as I have the EWWW CDN and Cloudflare. First Byte time is now a respectable “B”, This was always bad.

Update: I found out the longer you set cache delays in Cloudflare the higher the score.

Web Page Test

GT Metrix has a nice historical breakdown of load times (night and day).

Upcloud Site Speed in GTMetrix

Google Page Speed Insight Desktop Score

I benchmarked with https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

This will help with future SEO rankings. It is well known that Google is pushing fast servers.

100% Desktop page speed score

Google Chrome 70 Dev Console Audit (Desktop)

100% Chrome Audit Score

This is amazing, I never expected to get this high score.  I know Google like (and are pushing) sub-1-second scores.

My site is loading so well it is time I restored some old features that were too slow on other servers

  • I disabled Lazy loading of images (this was not working on some Android devices)
  • I re-added the News Widget and news images.

GTMetrix and WebpageTest sores are still good (even after adding bloat)

Benchmarks are still good

My WordPress site is not really that small either

Large website

FYI: WordPress Plugins I use.

These are the plugins I use.

How I use these plugins to speed up my site.

  • I use EWWW Image Optimizer plugin to auto-compress my images and to provide a CDN for media asset deliver (pre-Cloudflare). Learn more about ExactDN and EWWW.io here.
  • I use Autoptimize plugin to optimise HTML/CSS/JS and ensure select assets are on my EWWW CDN. This plugin also removes WordPress Emojis, removed the use of Google Fonts, allows you to define pre-configured domains, Async Javascript-files etc.
  • I use BJ Lazy Load to prevent all images in a post from loading on load (and only as the user scrolls down the page).
  • GTmetrix for WordPress and Cloudflare plugins are for information only?
  • I use WP-Optimize to ensure my database is healthy and to disable comments/trackbacks and pingbacks.

Let’s Test UpCloud’s Disk IO in Chicago

Looks good to me, Read IO is a little bit lower than UpCloud’s Singapore data centre but still, it’s faster than Vultr.  I can’t wait for more data centres to become available around the world.

Why is UpCloud Disk IO so good?

I asked UpCloud on Twitter why the Disk IO was so good.

  • “MaxIOPS is UpCloud’s proprietary block-storage technology. MaxIOPS is physically redundant storage technology where all customer’s data is located in two separate physical devices at all times. UpCloud uses InfiniBand (!) network to connect storage backends to compute nodes, where customers’ cloud servers are running. All disks are enterprise-grade SSD’s. And using separate storage backends, it allows us to live migrate our customers’ cloud servers freely inside our infrastructure between compute nodes – whether it be due to hardware malfunction (compute node) or backend software updates (example CPU vulnerability and immediate patching).“

My Answers to Questions to support

Q1) What’s the difference between backups and snapshots (a Twitter user said Snapshots were a thing)

A1) Backups and snapshots are the same things with our infrastructure.

Q2) What are charges for backup of a 50GB drive?

A2) We charge $0.06 / GB of the disk being captured. But capture the whole disk, not just what was used. So for a 50GB drive, we charge $0.06 * 50 = $3/month. Even if 1GB were only used.

  • Support confirmed that each backup is charged (so 5 times manual backups are charged 5 times). Setting up a daily auto backup schedule for 2 weeks would create 14 billable backup charges.
  • I guess a 25GB server will be $1.50 a month

Q3) What are data charges if I go over my 2TB quota?

A3) Outgoing data charges are $0.056/GB after the pre-configured allowance.

Q4) What happens if my balance hits $0?

A4) You will get notification of low account balance 2 weeks in advance based on your current daily spend. When your balance reaches zero, your servers will be shut down. But they will still be charged for. You can automatically top-up if you want to assign a payment type from your Control Panel. You deposit into your balance when you want. We use a prepay model of payment, so you need to top up before using, not billing you after usage. We give you lots of chances to top-up.

Support Tips

  • One thing to note, when deleting servers (CPU, RAM) instances, you get the option to delete the storages separately via a pop-up window. Choose to delete permanently to delete the disk, to save credit. Any disk storage lying around even unattached to servers will be billed.
  • Charges are in USD.

I think it’s time to delete my domain from Vultr in Sydney.

Deleted my Vultr domain

I deleted my Vultr domain.

Delete Vultr Server

Done.

Check out my new guide on Nixstats for awesome monitoring

What I would like

  1. Ability to name individual manual backups (tag with why I backed up).
  2. Ability to push user defined data from my VM to the dashboard
  3. Cheaper scheduled backups
  4. Sydney data centres (one day)

Update: Post UpCloud Launch Tweaks (Awesome)

I had a look at https://www.webpagetest.org/ results to see where else I can optimise webpage delivery.

Optimisation Options

HTTP2 Push

I added http2 to my listening servers I tested a http2 push page by defining this in /etc/nginx/sites-available/default 

Once I tested that push (demo here) was working I then defined two files to push that were being sent from my server

2FA Authentication at login

I recently checked out YubiCo YubiKeys and I have secured my Linux servers with 2FA prompts at login. Read the guide here. I secured my WordPress aswel.

Performance

I used the WordPress Plugin Autoptimize to remove Google font usage (this removed a number of files being loaded when my page loads).

I used the WordPress Plugin WP-Optimize plugin into to remove comments and disable pingbacks and trackbacks.

Results

Conclusion

I love UpCloud’s fast servers, give them a go (use my link and get $25 free credit).

I love Cloudflare for providing a fast CDN.

I love ewww.io’s automatic Image Compression and Resizing plugin that automatically handles image optimisations and pre Cloudflare/first hit CDN caching.

Read my post about server monitoring with Nixstats here.

Let the results speak for themselves (sub <1 second load times).

More Reading on UpCloud

https://www.upcloud.com/documentation/faq/

UpCloud Server Status

http://status.upcloud.com

I hope this guide helps someone.

Free Credit

Please consider using my referral code and get $25 credit for free.

https://www.upcloud.com/register/?promo=D84793

2020 Update. I have stopped using Putty and WinSCP. I now use MobaXterm (a tabbed SSH client for Windows) as it is way faster than WinSCP and better than Putty. Read my review post of MobaXTerm here.

Ask a question or recommend an article

[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

Revision History

v2.2 Converting to Blocks

v2.1 Newer GTMetrix scores

v2.0 New UpCloud UI Update and links to new guides.

v1.9 Spelling and grammar

v1.8 Trial mode gotcha (deposit money ASAP)

v1.7 Added RSA Private key info

v1.7 – Added new firewall rules info.

v1.6 – Added more bloat to the site, still good.

v1.5 Improving Accessibility

v1.4 Added Firewall Price

v1.3 Added wp-config and plugin usage descriptions.

v1.2 Added GTMetrix historical chart.

v1.1 Fixed free typos and added final conclusion images.

v1.0 Added final results

v0.9 added more tweaks (http2 push, removing unwanted files etc)

v0.81 Draft  – Added memory usage chart and added MaxIOPS info from UpCloud.

v0.8 Draft post.

Setting up DNSSEC on a Namecheap domain hosted on UpCloud using CloudFlare

by

This is how I set up DNSSEC on a Namecheap domain hosted on UpCloud using CloudFlare to setup DNS security extensions

If you have not read my previous posts I have now moved my blog to the awesome UpCloud host (signup using this link to get $25 free UpCloud VM credit). I compared Digital Ocean, Vultr and UpCloud Disk IO here and UpCloud came out on top by a long way (read the blog post here). Here is my blog post on moving from Vultr to UpCloud.

About DNSSEC

Wikipedia has a great write-up on DNSSEC also read the ICANN page on DNSSEC.

Snip “DNSSEC is a set of extensions to DNS which provide to DNS clients (resolvers) origin authentication of DNS data, authenticated denial of existence, and data integrity, but not availability or confidentiality.”

https://daniellbenway.net has a great video explaining DNSSEC

Handy DNSSEC Links

Let’s view my DNSSEC status now

https://dnssec-analyzer.verisignlabs.com/ can help you check your sites DNSSEC status.

DNSSEC Analyzer - https://dnssec-analyzer.verisignlabs.com/

Prerequisites

This guide assumes you have already purchased a domain and set it up with say UpCloud hosting (read my setup guide here).

Buy a domain name from Namecheap here.

Domain names for just 88 cents!

Read my old guide here that I created while setting up Cloudflare on the Vultr host to see how to setup Cloudflare.

Setting up DNSSEC

First I logged into My Namecheap account, selected my domain, selected Advanced DNS and enabled DNSSEC.

Screenshot of Namecheap Advanced DNS page

I can see a number of values for DNSSEC KeyType/Algorithm/Digest Type and Digest. Below are the options in the dropdowns for Algorithm and Digest Type.

DNSSEC Algorithms

DNSSEC Algorithms (RSA, MD5 etc)

DNSSEC Digest Types

DNSSEC Digest Types (SHA etc)

I contacted NameCheap support and they said I needed to contact my UpCloud hosts to get relevant DNSSEC values.

My domain was purchased at NameCheap but by domain routers by Cloudflare DNS.

Namecheap DNS Nameservers pointing to cloudflare

By chance, I logged into my Cloudflare account and noticed they have a DNSSEC section under DNS. Nice.

Screenshot of Cloudflare menu, DNS highlighted.

I enabled DNSSEC

Enable Cloudflare DNSSEC records

Cloudflare offers all the relevant DNSSEC values.

Screenshot of Cloudflare DNSSEC generated Values

I entered these values into Namecheap under Advanced DNS on my domain.

Screenshot fo adding a DNS record at Namecheap

After 5 mins re-ran the DNSSEC Analyzr tool.

Screenshot of http://dnssec-debugger.verisignlabs.com/ Results

Hmmm, Cloudflare seems to think something is wrong 🙁

Screenshot of Cloudflare saying DNSSEC is not configured

I ran a DNS DS Lookup on my site. Everything appears ok.

Screenshot of https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=mx

I re-added the record in Namecheap and waited for 15 mins and this time Cloudflare was happy. Maybe I just needed to wait for DNS replication a little longer?

Screenshot of cloudflare showing DNSSEC is all ok.

I tested my DNS serves with DNS Root Canary

DNS test with https://rootcanary.org/

I tested my site’s DNSSEC with https://zonemaster.iis.se/

Screenshot of https://zonemaster.iis.se/

Done

Skipping Cloudflare

I found that I can simply skip Cloudflare by enabling Premium DNS at Namecheap

Then enabling DNSSEC

Easy (totally independent of Cloudflare)

I hope this guide helps someone.

Please consider using my referral code and get $25 UpCloud VM credit for free.

https://www.upcloud.com/register/?promo=D84793

Ask a question or recommend an article

[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

Revision History

V1.3 Namecheap DNSSEC

V1.2 ICANN DNSSEC link

V1.1 https://daniellbenway.net explainer video.

v1.0 Initial Post

Measuring VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 3 of 4

by

How can you measure VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 3 of 4

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 or Part 4

I used these commands to generate bonnie++ reports from the data in part 2

echo "<h1>Bonnie Results</h1>" > /www-data/bonnie.html
echo "<h2>Vultr (Sydney)</h2>" >> /www-data/bonnie.html
echo "1.97,1.97,servername,1,1528177870,4G,,656,99,308954,68,113706,33,1200,92,188671,30,10237,251,16,,,,,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,26067us,119ms,179ms,29139us,26069us,16118us,1463us,703us,880us,263us,119us,593us" | bon_csv2html >> /www-data/bonnie.html
echo "<h2>Digital Ocean (London)</h2>" >> /www-data/bonnie.html
echo "1.97,1.97,servername,1,1528186398,4G,,699,99,778636,74,610414,60,1556,99,1405337,59,+++++,+++,16,,,,,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,17678us,10099us,17014us,7027us,3067us,2366us,1243us,376us,611us,108us,59us,181us" | bon_csv2html >> /www-data/bonnie.html
echo "<h2>UpCloud (Singapore)</h2>" >> /www-data/bonnie.html
echo "1.97,1.97,servername,1,1528226703,4G,,1014,99,407179,24,366622,32,2137,99,451886,17,+++++,+++,16,,,,,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,11297us,54232us,16443us,4949us,44883us,1595us,264us,340us,561us,138us,66us,327us" | bon_csv2html >> /www-data/bonnie.html

Image of results here

Bonnie Results

Network Performace

IMHO Network Latency is the biggest impact on server performance, Read my old post on scalability on a budget here. I am in Australia an having a server in Singapore was too far away and latency was terrible.

Here is a non-scientific example of pinging a Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud server in three different locations (and Google).

Ping Test

Test Ping Results

Latency matters, run a https://www.webpagetest.org/ scan over your site to see why.

Adding https added almost 0.7 seconds to https communications in the past on Digital Ocean (a few thousand kilometres away). The longer the latency the longer HTTPS handshakes take.

SSL

Deploying a server to Singapore (in my experience) is bad if your visitors are in Australia. But deploying to other regions may be lower in cost though. It’s a trade-off.

Server Location

Deploy servers as close as you can to your customers is the best tip for performance.

Deploy serves close to your customers

Also, consider setting up Image Optimization and Image CDN plugins (guide here) in WordPress and using Cloudflare (guide here)

Benchmarking with SysBench

Install CPU Benchmark

sudo apt-get install sysbench

CPU Benchmark (Vultr/Sydney)

Result

sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 1

Doing CPU performance benchmark

Threads started!
Done.

Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000


Test execution summary:
    total time:                          39.1700s
    total number of events:              10000
    total time taken by event execution: 39.1586
    per-request statistics:
         min:                                  2.90ms
         avg:                                  3.92ms
         max:                                 20.44ms
         approx.  95 percentile:               7.43ms

Threads fairness:
    events (avg/stddev):           10000.0000/0.00
    execution time (avg/stddev):   39.1586/0.00

39.15 seconds

CPU Benchmark (Digital Ocean/London)

sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run

Result

sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 1

Doing CPU performance benchmark

Threads started!
Done.

Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000


Test execution summary:
    total time:                          33.4382s
    total number of events:              10000
    total time taken by event execution: 33.4352
    per-request statistics:
         min:                                  3.24ms
         avg:                                  3.34ms
         max:                                  6.45ms
         approx.  95 percentile:               3.45ms

Threads fairness:
    events (avg/stddev):           10000.0000/0.00
    execution time (avg/stddev):   33.4352/0.00

33.43 sec

CPU Benchmark (UpCloud/Singapore)

sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run

Result

sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 1



Doing CPU performance benchmark

Threads started!
Done.

Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000


Test execution summary:
    total time:                          23.7809s
    total number of events:              10000
    total time taken by event execution: 23.7780
    per-request statistics:
         min:                                  2.35ms
         avg:                                  2.38ms
         max:                                  6.92ms
         approx.  95 percentile:               2.46ms

Threads fairness:
    events (avg/stddev):           10000.0000/0.00
    execution time (avg/stddev):   23.7780/0.00

23.77 sec

Surprisingly, 1st place in prime generation goes to UpCloud, then Digital Ocean then Vultr.  UpCloud has some good processors.

Processors:

  • UpCLoud (Singapore): Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2687W v4 @ 3.00GHz
  • Digital Ocean (London): Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L v2 @ 2.40GHz
  • Vultr (Sydney): Virtual CPU a7769a6388d5 (Masked/Hidden CPU @ 2.40GHz)

(Lower is better)

prime benchmark results

(oops, typo in the chart should say Vultr)

Benchmark the file IO

Confirm free space

df -h /

Install Sysbench

sudo apt-get install sysbench

I had 10GB free on all servers (Vultr, Digitial Ocean and UpCloud) so I created a 10GB test file.

sysbench --test=fileio --file-total-size=10G prepare
sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

128 files, 81920Kb each, 10240Mb total
Creating files for the test...

Now I can run the benchmark and use the pre-created text file.

sysbench --test=fileio --file-total-size=10G --file-test-mode=rndrw --init-rng=on --max-time=300 --max-requests=0 run

SysBench description from the Ubuntu manpage.

“SysBench is a modular, cross-platform and multi-threaded benchmark tool for evaluating OS parameters that are important for a system running a database under intensive load. The idea of this benchmark suite is to quickly get an impression about system performance without setting up complex database benchmarks or even without installing a database at all.”

SysBench Results (Vultr/Sydney)

sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 1
Initializing random number generator from timer.


Extra file open flags: 0
128 files, 80Mb each
10Gb total file size
Block size 16Kb
Number of random requests for random IO: 0
Read/Write ratio for combined random IO test: 1.50
Periodic FSYNC enabled, calling fsync() each 100 requests.
Calling fsync() at the end of test, Enabled.
Using synchronous I/O mode
Doing random r/w test
Threads started!
Time limit exceeded, exiting...
Done.

Operations performed:  385920 Read, 257280 Write, 823266 Other = 1466466 Total
Read 5.8887Gb  Written 3.9258Gb  Total transferred 9.8145Gb  (33.5Mb/sec)
 2143.98 Requests/sec executed

Test execution summary:
    total time:                          300.0026s
    total number of events:              643200
    total time taken by event execution: 182.4249
    per-request statistics:
         min:                                  0.01ms
         avg:                                  0.28ms
         max:                                 18.12ms
         approx.  95 percentile:               0.55ms

Threads fairness:
    events (avg/stddev):           643200.0000/0.00
    execution time (avg/stddev):   182.4249/0.00

SysBench Results (Digital Ocean/London)

sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 1
Initializing random number generator from timer.


Extra file open flags: 0
128 files, 80Mb each
10Gb total file size
Block size 16Kb
Number of random requests for random IO: 0
Read/Write ratio for combined random IO test: 1.50
Periodic FSYNC enabled, calling fsync() each 100 requests.
Calling fsync() at the end of test, Enabled.
Using synchronous I/O mode
Doing random r/w test
Threads started!
Time limit exceeded, exiting...
Done.

Operations performed:  944280 Read, 629520 Write, 2014432 Other = 3588232 Total
Read 14.409Gb  Written 9.6057Gb  Total transferred 24.014Gb  (81.968Mb/sec)
 5245.96 Requests/sec executed

Test execution summary:
    total time:                          300.0024s
    total number of events:              1573800
    total time taken by event execution: 160.5558
    per-request statistics:
         min:                                  0.00ms
         avg:                                  0.10ms
         max:                                 18.62ms
         approx.  95 percentile:               0.34ms

Threads fairness:
    events (avg/stddev):           1573800.0000/0.00
    execution time (avg/stddev):   160.5558/0.00

SysBench Results (UpCloud/Singapore)

sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

Running the test with following options:
Number of threads: 1
Initializing random number generator from timer.


Extra file open flags: 0
128 files, 80Mb each
10Gb total file size
Block size 16Kb
Number of random requests for random IO: 0
Read/Write ratio for combined random IO test: 1.50
Periodic FSYNC enabled, calling fsync() each 100 requests.
Calling fsync() at the end of test, Enabled.
Using synchronous I/O mode
Doing random r/w test
Threads started!
Time limit exceeded, exiting...
Done.

Operations performed:  994320 Read, 662880 Write, 2121090 Other = 3778290 Total
Read 15.172Gb  Written 10.115Gb  Total transferred 25.287Gb  (86.312Mb/sec)
 5523.97 Requests/sec executed

Test execution summary:
    total time:                          300.0016s
    total number of events:              1657200
    total time taken by event execution: 107.4434
    per-request statistics:
         min:                                  0.00ms
         avg:                                  0.06ms
         max:                                 15.43ms
         approx.  95 percentile:               0.13ms

Threads fairness:
    events (avg/stddev):           1657200.0000/0.00
    execution time (avg/stddev):   107.4434/0.00

Comparison

Sysbench Results table

sysbench fileio results (text)

Read

  • Vultr (Sydney): 385,920
  • Digital Ocean (London): 944,280
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 944,320

Write

  • Vultr (Sydney): 823,266
  • Digital Ocean (London): 629,520
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 662,880

Other

  • Vultr (Sydney): 1,466,466
  • Digital Ocean (London): 3,588,232
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 2,121,090

Total Read Gb

  • Vultr (Sydney): 5.8887 Gb
  • Digital Ocean (London): 14.409 Gb
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 15.172 Gb

Total Written Gb

  • Vultr (Sydney): 3.9258 Gb
  • Digital Ocean (London): 9.6057 Gb
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 10.115 Gb

Total Transferred Gb

  • Vultr (Sydney): 9.8145 Gb
  • Digital Ocean (London): 24.014 Gb
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 25.287 Gb

Now I can remove test file io benchmark file

sysbench --test=fileio --file-total-size=2=10G cleanup
sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

Removing test files...

Confirm the test file has been deleted

df -h /
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1        40G   16G   23G  41% /

Bonus: Benchmark MySQL (on my main server (Vultr) not on Digital Ocean and UpCLoud)

I tried to run a command

sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --db-driver=mysql --mysql-db=test --mysql-user=root --mysql-password=#################################### prepare
sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark

FATAL: unable to connect to MySQL server, aborting...
FATAL: error 1049: Unknown database 'test'
FATAL: failed to connect to database server!

To fix the error I created a test table with Adminer (guide here).

Create Test Table

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Measuring VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 2 of 4

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How can you measure VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 2 of 4

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 or Part 4

Measure Disk Performance with Bonnie++

Installing Bonnie++ on Ubuntu

apt-get install bonnie++

Read this. post on using Bonnie++

Benchmark disk IO with DD and Bonnie++

Starting Bonnie++

bonnie++ -d /tmp -r 2048 -u username

Bonnie++ Readme.

Disk io with bonnie++ on Vultr/Sydney

Writing a byte at a time...done
Writing intelligently...done
Rewriting...done
Reading a byte at a time...done
Reading intelligently...done
start 'em...done...done...done...done...done...
Create files in sequential order...done.
Stat files in sequential order...done.
Delete files in sequential order...done.
Create files in random order...done.
Stat files in random order...done.
Delete files in random order...done.
Version 1.97 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency 1 -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
servername 4G 656 99 308954 68 113706 33 1200 92 188671 30 10237 251
Latency 26067us 119ms 179ms 29139us 26069us 16118us
Version 1.97 ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
servername -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++
Latency 1463us 703us 880us 263us 119us 593us
1.97,1.97,servername,1,1528177870,4G,,656,99,308954,68,113706,33,1200,92,188671,30,10237,251,16,,,,,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,26067us,119ms,179ms,29139us,26069us,16118us,1463us,703us,880us,263us,119us,593us

Disk io with bonnie++ on Digital Ocean/London

Writing a byte at a time...done
Writing intelligently...done
Rewriting...done
Reading a byte at a time...done
Reading intelligently...done
start 'em...done...done...done...done...done...
Create files in sequential order...done.
Stat files in sequential order...done.
Delete files in sequential order...done.
Create files in random order...done.
Stat files in random order...done.
Delete files in random order...done.
Version 1.97 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency 1 -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
servername 4G 699 99 778636 74 610414 60 1556 99 1405337 59 +++++ +++
Latency 17678us 10099us 17014us 7027us 3067us 2366us
Version 1.97 ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
servername -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++
Latency 1243us 376us 611us 108us 59us 181us
1.97,1.97,servername,1,1528186398,4G,,699,99,778636,74,610414,60,1556,99,1405337,59,+++++,+++,16,,,,,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,17678us,10099us,17014us,7027us,3067us,2366us,1243us,376us,611us,108us,59us,181us

Disk io with bonnie++ on UpCloud/Singapore

Writing a byte at a time...done
Writing intelligently...done
Rewriting...done
Reading a byte at a time...done
Reading intelligently...done
start 'em...done...done...done...done...done...
Create files in sequential order...done.
Stat files in sequential order...done.
Delete files in sequential order...done.
Create files in random order...done.
Stat files in random order...done.
Delete files in random order...done.
Version 1.97 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency 1 -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
servername 4G 1014 99 407179 24 366622 32 2137 99 451886 17 +++++ +++
Latency 11297us 54232us 16443us 4949us 44883us 1595us
Version 1.97 ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
servername -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++
Latency 264us 340us 561us 138us 66us 327us
1.97,1.97,servername,1,1528226703,4G,,1014,99,407179,24,366622,32,2137,99,451886,17,+++++,+++,16,,,,,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,11297us,54232us,16443us,4949us,44883us,1595us,264us,340us,561us,138us,66us,327us

Now read this site on how to make sense of this data

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Measuring VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 1 of 4

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How can you measure VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 1 of 4. Update: I moved my domain to UpCloud.

Update (June 2018): I moved my domain to UpCloud (they are that awesome). Use this link to signup and get $25 free credit. Read the steps I took to move my domain to UpCloud here.

Upcloud Site Speed in GTMetrix

Comparing Digital Ocean/Vultr and UpCloud Disk IO

I have a number of guides on moving away from CPanel, Setting up VM’s on AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean (all in the search of extra performance) but how do you know when a server performance is ok apart from running GT Metrix and other external site benchmarking tools.

This post is split up as it was too long.

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 or Part 4

Spoiler: It all depends on where your server is located and what you do with it (Tweaks will improve the performance).

P.S This is NOT a paid endorsement or conclusive test (just a quick benchmark/review).

What does your server do?

You need to know what your server does 24/7 and what resources the services need.

I use htop to view real-time and historical usage data for each process.

htop

Tweaking Advice

A friend gave me good advice re-tweaking a cheap host to get good performance

I am not a fan of just throwing more money at a host and expecting better performance. Host have unique features and cons., there is no shortage of hosts or host cons.

How can you run synthetic benchmarks to determine comparable performance metrics?

WARNING: Comparing synthetic benchmarks can be far removed from real-world speeds. Benchmark results below were from 3 different servers I have on 3 different hosts in three different locations (the only thing the same was the use of Ubuntu 16.04 $5/m servers). These results are not scientific and should not be used to compare host providers. Benchmark runs were one-off (not averages over multiple timezones/days).

Disk Performance

Speaking of disk performance I noticed this the other day on the RunCloud blog. Faster than SSD (UpCloud)?

UpCloud Faster-than-SSD Cloud Hosting Server (Promo Code Inside)

Runcloud is a server management console that can interface with your domains (read my old review here).  I don’t use Runcloud but it is great for those who need a GUI to help manage VM via a dashboard. However, I prefer to know what is going on under the hood. I have investigated webmin in the past though.

Let’s do a quick IO benchmark test between UpCloud, Digital Ocean and Vultr on similarly low end $5/m servers,

Good advice on command line benchmarking tools from a friend.


Installing iozone to test disk performance

I searched for a post on using iozone (Thanks thegeekstuff).  I will be reviewing the “Writer report” and “Reader report”. Read more about iozone here.

View the iozone page for how to break down results.

iozone results breakdown

(image snip from http://www.iozone.org/)

Install iozone on Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install iozone3

Run an iozone disk test and output the results to a spreadsheet.

iozone -a -b iozone.xls

Now let’s run a Read/Write test on Vultr/Digital Ocean and UpCloud. Multiple runs were not performed, this is not a scientific test (just a simple benchmark test (as is, ignoring sever load and local infrastructure/timezone load)).

iozone Benchmark results for Vultr “Read” (Sydney)

 “4”  “8”  “16”  “32”  “64”  “128”  “256”  “512”  “1024”  “2048”  “4096”  “8192”  “16384”
64 2133730 3363612 4274062 4564786 6421025
128 2248149 3536566 4135958 7082197 4135958 11720614
256 1884399 2699161 3879045 3667079 5971678 5687020 5687020
512 3140488 3736016 3684733 4262523 4610256 2638816 5067142 5684095
1024 1617808 1939207 3411938 3999762 4048778 4614246 3083680 5885083 6609617
2048 1926510 2569678 4423683 4997618 3937075 459605 2896324 3542524 4971585 4707314
4096 1701683 2151300 4209920 5001700 4751325 4869845 5389246 3647681 4928521 6207035 4347346
8192 2063424 2329346 3203763 2937280 3221485 3232699 3626431 3650706 3789200 4110603 3715045 4350542
16384 1738553 2778362 3397613 3679205 3693442 3171501 3524291 3393586 3004024 3552531 3456574 2693845 2488861
32768 0 0 0 0 2952894 3537153 3574875 3768155 4719613 3890280 3394995 2735222 2542914
65536 0 0 0 0 4057489 3610789 3619967 3800078 3275327 3591212 3607188 1770426 2826659
131072 0 0 0 0 3552270 1890742 5275167 3727339 3527607 1753893 3234736 2341111 1378601
262144 0 0 0 0 3798586 1302021 1491429 3712825 3228816 3757963 3715510 2592485 2481061
524288 0 0 0 0 2758756 2487923 3705741 1807328 2118309 3675988 3196367 3394330 2396842

iozone Benchmark results for Digital Ocean “Read” (London)

4  “8”  “16”  “32”  “64”  “128”  “256”   “512”   “1024”   “2048”  “4096”   “8192”   “16384”
64 4564786 7100397 9006179 10402178 12902017
128 4717434 7082197 8548124 9795896 10567140 10779307
256 4840911 7073132 8271916 9868433 10148242 10651598 1E+07
512 4742616 6909408 8140399 9304292 9638369 10044089 1E+07 10044089
1024 4249053 5917516 6208343 7537599 9300377 10454984 7E+06 7113161 9946527
2048 3885431 6967792 6603549 6845629 10401883 9808036 9E+06 7903836 9308497 7817519
4096 2506983 5953231 6263611 6953144 7774379 6225028 6E+06 8081580 7683972 8081580 8240513
8192 3665114 4850463 5479317 6141364 6277120 6108608 6E+06 6569983 5732541 7166033 6633402 5479317
16384 3673501 4828584 5416182 6187150 6614761 6298872 6E+06 6430310 5984033 6402750 6046159 4791883 3405527
32768 0 0 0 0 4692542 6140929 6E+06 6295642 5231224 6545707 5781108 4513475 3702577
65536 0 0 0 0 6315430 5830131 6E+06 6444695 6219125 6473838 5338595 4248118 3679324
131072 0 0 0 0 6130002 6461496 6E+06 5958068 5983423 6387547 6138078 3994888 3602079
262144 0 0 0 0 6456746 6323727 6E+06 6504146 6390176 6486151 6433963 3955165 3654188
524288 0 0 0 0 1667337 6381456 6E+06 6445708 6448714 6421071 5981200 4155185 3770740

iozone Benchmark results for UpCloud “Read” (Singapore)

 “4”  “8”  “16”  “32”  “64”  “128”  “256”  “512”  “1024”  “2048”  “4096”  “8192”  “16384”
64 6421025 6421025 10821524 12902017 15972885
128 4889281 6406138 9129573 10779307 14200794 14200794
256 5320671 3879045 10758322 8815202 10245071 12812277 12228612
512 4305250 5115422 8844453 8234036 7091952 8394979 7540170 10235583
1024 4339202 4762630 5821271 6163794 6819511 4674510 6479979 8183918 10230845
2048 4204968 5319484 5800851 5816563 6243566 6378005 5953632 6851089 7940367 8229438
4096 4526013 5556581 4817948 5404504 7301864 5759634 5810280 6007355 6919538 8620945 6281934
8192 4298295 5019093 5927357 6036702 6781341 6082655 5855636 6527546 6553692 6792065 6466126 4437634
16384 4282172 5849558 6313919 6635840 6741958 6657054 6423097 5536622 6558575 6442970 4527032 3784777 3901898
32768 0 0 0 0 5825460 5423408 6504198 6665385 6365329 6426343 5263076 3718605 3705971
65536 0 0 0 0 6908075 6623116 6493259 6609738 6311805 6483610 5489674 4035982 3561526
131072 0 0 0 0 5650180 5718949 2465429 5391253 3495911 5784844 5367408 3733490 3582175
262144 0 0 0 0 6814627 6691250 6189661 5906786 6081645 5799913 5247919 4121250 3637601
524288 0 0 0 0 6404764 6309263 5673979 5751609 6288245 6305103 5978680 3911984 3767116

iozone Benchmark results for Vultr “Write” (Sydney)

 “4”  “8”  “16”  “32”  “64”  “128”  “256”  “512”  “1024”  “2048”  “4096”  “8192”  “16384”
64 289322 532815 507625 429630 566551
128 398921 465304 434078 417212 669577 821147
256 530031 613985 820398 474937 891956 815414 370025
512 387576 754083 709019 819085 702295 609421 924123 496091
1024 297233 448522 716089 923488 854073 817340 1203137 1072453 601636
2048 408697 634655 695383 1358134 549657 1295458 821154 797520 964207 258493
4096 236150 433804 1215774 1245025 820832 809958 1371339 914269 921083 1004682 1481431
8192 611113 666677 806286 715219 779825 824294 875947 870091 1046378 791192 1023592 453248
16384 435454 706149 718313 845499 893495 888068 812778 842885 820591 941120 839610 862672 406590
32768 0 0 0 0 465196 786067 938881 627294 890917 968147 872369 871329 842843
65536 0 0 0 0 515057 790172 937568 915601 897235 867197 907562 852002 743856
131072 0 0 0 0 501091 480492 813147 870886 880239 805333 684630 1117578 633185
262144 0 0 0 0 387126 323185 323656 473258 405744 369599 422554 468992 453563
524288 0 0 0 0 325588 380450 392965 451608 303255 355148 386250 432054 416512

iozone Benchmark results for Digital Ocean “Write” (London)

 “4”  “8”  “16”  “32”  “64”  “128”  “256”  “512”  “1024”  “2048”  “4096”  “8192”  “16384”
64 831569 566551 1279447 1363961 1392258
128 652488 1319723 1421023 990891 1663139 1561553
256 1185399 1152323 1534342 1598292 1826695 1707589 1514860
512 1166599 1296159 1399189 1620980 1620980 1361920 1589779 1672748
1024 1079190 1321200 1584972 1917562 1592612 1701108 1718120 1462960 1643814
2048 1210394 1470172 1621719 1550584 1796378 1643753 1713598 1759581 1649117 1488257
4096 916513 1287575 1574718 1406594 1742237 1734148 1652418 1583280 1599346 1661045 1533532
8192 1109745 1318748 1178567 1544201 1502340 1371492 1466747 1499521 1479759 1564878 1291292 1347609
16384 1106205 1282084 1374037 1503649 1429398 1461407 1496119 1578132 1547289 1333431 1203371 1198815 1501316
32768 0 0 0 0 1270914 1406589 1513114 1468226 1558303 1552038 1516336 1443280 1440360
65536 0 0 0 0 1319322 1327984 1311504 1411955 1266988 1359645 1386446 1347092 1368295
131072 0 0 0 0 1100658 1229326 1227197 1318631 1265552 1233306 1227747 1237896 1233502
262144 0 0 0 0 1167160 1064078 1155828 1185185 1086152 1193673 1080872 1062611 1141960
524288 0 0 0 0 977835 1124816 1052757 1219183 1128972 1140177 1091954 1141635 1132063

iozone Benchmark results for UpCloud “Write” (Singapore)

 “8”  “16”  “32”  “64”  “128”  “256”  “512”  “1024”  “2048”  “4096”  “8192”  “16384”
64 1143223 1255511 1562436 1452528 1279447
128 1451764 1406136 1543594 1504659 1852520 1749872
256 1642294 1829808 1970871 1855098 1802167 1952947 2000242
512 1537424 1854787 1801873 2294796 1983258 2124526 1895721 1417662
1024 1434138 1553442 1609925 1931359 2098375 2044438 1872419 1768345 1892218
2048 1562145 1901771 1817281 1848169 1967097 1296240 2267786 2081497 1915768 2007554
4096 1625372 1966378 1924741 1342092 1950306 2078175 1914873 1459656 1995152 2102849 1326855
8192 1444062 1808330 1956503 1924397 2127300 2042328 2135630 1986478 2062557 2061319 1337016 1812049
16384 1667066 1820248 1898495 2051339 2012530 2111080 2119806 1491217 2060875 1974254 1934789 1815823 1921911
32768 0 0 0 0 2057506 1454537 2075621 2070899 1869795 2052896 1892347 1855382 1873440
65536 0 0 0 0 2067127 2077673 2088994 2179809 2087471 2099108 1904723 1642505 1832204
131072 0 0 0 0 1234663 1824959 1304340 1775514 1287481 1560379 1631992 1085609 1675467
262144 0 0 0 0 685774 808487 823824 662524 681762 548308 814946 645663 732176
524288 0 0 0 0 547296 517384 503422 521173 538714 518429 528950 529593 512944

Here is my quick unscientific take on a one-pass benchmark results above.

Vultr (Read) Vultr (Write) Digital Ocean (Write) UpCloud (Read) UpCloud (Write)

These results need some decoding.

Next >>

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 or Part 4

Ask a question or recommend an article

[contact-form-7 id=”30″ title=”Ask a Question”]

Update (June 2018): I moved my domain to UpCloud (they are that awesome). Use this link to signup and get $25 free credit. Read the steps I took to move my domain to UpCloud here.

Upcloud Site Speed in GTMetrix

Revision History

v1.2 added the fact that I Moved to UpCloud.

v1.1 Re ran iozone -a -b iozone.xls on all servers.

v1.0 Initial post

Securing Google G Suite email by setting up SPF, DKIM and DMARC with Cloudflare

by

This post will show you how you can setup Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) on your GMail (G Suite) email to limit spam and increase security.

I have a number of guides on moving away form CPanel, Setting up VM’s on AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean along with installing and managing WordPress from the command line. I use Google G Suite to send and receive emails that are linked to my domain (even via the command line) using multiple domains (with aliases).

For the best performing VM host (UpCloud) read my guide on the awesome UpCloud VM hosts (get $25 free credit by signing up here).

Buy a domain name from Namecheap here.

Domain names for just 88 cents!

Buy how can you extend your email security and limit spam?

Enter..

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) for Authorizing Use of Domains in Email

Background: SPF summary from the RFC document from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

“Email on the Internet can be forged in a number of ways. In particular, existing protocols place no restriction on what a sending host can use as the “MAIL FROM” of a message or the domain given on the SMTP HELO/EHLO commands. This document describes version 1 of the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) protocol, whereby ADministrative Management Domains (ADMDs) can explicitly authorize the hosts that are allowed to use their domain names, and a receiving host can check such authorization.”

Google has a guide in setting up SPF records for your G Suite account.

Scan your site for SPF, DKIM and DMARC configuration(s).

Gmail has a test site where you can check your site SPF, DKIM and DMARC etc: https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/checkmx/

Secure GSuite

How to set up an SPF Record

I followed this guide to set up an SPF record on my G Suite account. I use Cloudflare for my DNS provider so I’ll make my DNS changes there.

Add SPF Record

Update: Google instructions were wrong, use a TXT record and not a SPF record.

Read more on SPF at Wikipedia here.

DNS will take a while to replicate so do wait a few hours before checking again with the checkmx tool.

Now let’s set up DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures

Read more on DKIM at Wikipedia here.

Background: The DKIM RFC form the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) states…

“DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) permits a person, role, or organization that owns the signing domain to claim some responsibility for a message by associating the domain with the message. This can be an author’s organization, an operational relay, or one of their agents. DKIM separates the question of the identity of the Signer of the message from the purported author of the message. Assertion of responsibility is validated through a cryptographic signature and by querying the Signer’s domain directly to retrieve the appropriate public key. Message transit from author to recipient is through relays that typically make no substantive change to the message content and thus preserve the DKIM signature.”

Google has a DKIM FAQ: https://support.google.com/a/answer/174124

Login to your G Suite account and load this FAQ.

The FAQ page states..

“You can help prevent spoofing by adding a digital signature to outgoing message headers using the DKIM standard. This involves using a private domain key to encrypt your domain’s outgoing mail headers, and adding a public version of the key to the domain’s DNS records. Recipient servers can then retrieve the public key to decrypt incoming headers and verify that the message really comes from your domain and hasn’t been changed along the way.”

Click Generate the Domain Key

Generate Domain Key

Follow the steps and generate a key

Generate Key

Generate a new record

Generate key

Add the DKIM key to your DNS record

Add DNS record

DNS will take a while to replicate so do wait a few hours before checking again with the checkmx tool.

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC)

Read more on DMARC at Wikipedia here. Read the official page here https://dmarc.org/.

Background: The DMARC RFC form the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) states…

DMARC Flow

DMARC Flow

“Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) is a scalable mechanism by which a mail-originating organization can express domain-level policies and preferences for message validation, disposition, and reporting, that a mail-receiving organization can use to improve mail handling.

Originators of Internet Mail need to be able to associate reliable and authenticated domain identifiers with messages, communicate policies about messages that use those identifiers, and report about mail using those identifiers. These abilities have several benefits: Receivers can provide feedback to Domain Owners about the use of their domains; this feedback can provide valuable insight about the management of internal operations and the presence of external domain name abuse.

DMARC does not produce or encourage elevated delivery privilege of authenticated email. DMARC is a mechanism for policy distribution that enables increasingly strict handling of messages that fail authentication checks, ranging from no action, through altered delivery, up to message rejection.”

Google G Suite has a guide to setting up a DMARC record here

Snip from the Google guide here..

“Spammers can sometimes forge the “From” address on email messages so the spam appears to come from a user in your domain. To help prevent this sort of abuse, Google is participating in DMARC.org, which gives domain owners more control over what Gmail does with spam email messages from their domain.

G Suite follows the DMARC.org standard and allows you to decide how Gmail treats unauthenticated emails coming from your domain. Domain owners can publish a policy telling Gmail and other participating email providers how to handle unauthenticated messages sent from their domain. By defining a policy, you can help combat phishing to protect users and your reputation.“

Login to your G Suite account and load this FAQ

Click Add A DMARC Record

Add DMARC

You will then need to set up a DKIM Domain Key (if you have not done so yet)

When you are done you need to choose your DMARC rules, I would suggest you go to https://mxtoolbox.com/DMARCRecordGenerator.aspx to generate a record

I generated these rules

Dmarc Rules

Warning: Setting a DMARC policy that is too strict may block mail from being delivered. Tighten rules over time.

Login to your DNS provider and add your TXT record.

DMARC Record

You should now have an SPF, DKIM and DMARC record in DNS.

DNS

Update: The SPD record above should be a TXT (Google led me astray)

DNS will take a while to replicate so do wait a few hours before checking again with the checkmx tool.

Now go to bed and wait for DNS to replicate.

Troubleshooting SPF

My TXT record would not validate with https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/checkmx/check

Google Toolbox

The MX Toolbox SPF checker reports that SPF records are deprecated and to use TXT records instead.

SPF TXT Record

Fix (remove the SPF record and add a TXT record with the same contents). Don’t forget to delete the old SPF record.

TXT Record

Results

SPF Setup

Reports

SPF/DKIM reports will let me know when unauthorized people send email from my domain.

This is a spf/dkim authentication-failure report for an email message received from IP 125.105.176.155 on Sat, 14 Apr 2018 13:14:09 +0800.
Below is some detail information about this message:
 1. SPF-authenticated Identifiers: none;
 2. DKIM-authenticated Identifiers: none;
 3. DMARC Mechanism Check Result: Identifier non-aligned, DMARC mechanism check failures;

For more information please check Aggregate Reports or mail to [email protected]



Feedback-Type: auth-failure
User-Agent: NtesDmarcReporter/1.0
Version: 1
Original-Mail-From: <[email protected]>
Arrival-Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2018 13:14:09 +0800
Source-IP: 125.105.176.155
Reported-Domain: fearby.com
Original-Envelope-Id: VcCowECJ7EIejtFanCHFLg--.51187S2
Authentication-Results: 163.com; dkim=none; spf=softfail [email protected]
Delivery-Result: delivered
Identity-Alignment: none



Received: from mitai (unknown [208.136.26.72])
	by fearby.com with SMTP id LyDKBHx6xsr7XZkf.1
	for <[email protected]>; Sat, 14 Apr 2018 13:14:03 +0800
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
From: =?utf-8?B?5rip5a6D?= <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: =?utf-8?B?UmXvvJrlm57lpI3vvJrovazlj5HvvJrml7bpl7Q05pyIMjAtMjHml6XkuIo=?=
	=?utf-8?B?5rW3IOWcsOeCuSDnvo7oh6PljJblpoblk4Hlhazlj7jln7norq3ln7rlnLA=?=
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2018 13:13:56 +0800
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
	boundary="----=_NextPart_000_08FE_016CD6FE.1A359D20"
X-mailer: Bagf 2

Also, DMARC will alert me to unauthorized activity

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<feedback>
  <report_metadata>
    <org_name>google.com</org_name>
    <email>[email protected]</email>
    <extra_contact_info>https://support.google.com/a/answer/2466580</extra_contact_info>
    <report_id>4329490063964523747</report_id>
    <date_range>
      <begin>1523750400</begin>
      <end>1523836799</end>
    </date_range>
  </report_metadata>
  <policy_published>
    <domain>fearby.com</domain>
    <adkim>r</adkim>
    <aspf>r</aspf>
    <p>quarantine</p>
    <sp>none</sp>
    <pct>5</pct>
  </policy_published>
  <record>
    <row>
      <source_ip>2001:19f0:5801:5fa:5400:ff:fe80:ec7a</source_ip>
      <count>2</count>
      <policy_evaluated>
        <disposition>none</disposition>
        <dkim>fail</dkim>
        <spf>fail</spf>
        <reason>
          <type>sampled_out</type>
          <comment></comment>
        </reason>
      </policy_evaluated>
    </row>
    <identifiers>
      <header_from>fearby.com</header_from>
    </identifiers>
    <auth_results>
      <spf>
        <domain>unknown</domain>
        <result>none</result>
      </spf>
    </auth_results>
  </record>
</feedback>

I hope this guide helps someone.

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Revision History

v1.4 Reports

v1.3 DMARC Flow image

V1.2 Updated wording

V1.1 Fixed typos (they were free)

v1.0 Initial post

Using OWASP ZAP GUI to scan your Applications for security issues

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OWASP is a non-profit that lists the Top Ten Most Critical Web Application Security Risks, they also have a GUI Java tool called OWASP Zap that you can use to check your apps for security issue.

I have a number of guides on moving hosting away form CPanel , Setting up VM’s on AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean along with installing and managing WordPress from the command line. It is important that you always update your site and software and test your sites and software for vulnerabilities. Zap is free and completely open source.

Disclaimer, I am not an expert (this Zap post and my past Kali Linux guide will be updated as I learn more).

OWASP Top 10

OWASP has a top 10 list of things to review.

OWASP Top 10

Download the OWASP 10 10 Application security risks PDF here form here.

Using the free OWASP Zap Tool

Snip from https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Zed_Attack_Proxy_Project

“The OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) is one of the world’s most popular free security tools and is actively maintained by hundreds of international volunteers*. It can help you automatically find security vulnerabilities in your web applications while you are developing and testing your applications. It’s also a great tool for experienced pentesters to use for manual security testing.”

Zap Overview

Here is a quick demo of Zap in action.

Do check out the official Zap videos on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/OWASPGLOBAL/videos if you want to learn more.

Installing Zap

Download Zap from here.

Download Zap

Download Options

Download

Download contents

Run Install

Copy to the app to the OSX Application folder

Installing

App Installed

App Insatalled

Open OSX’s Privacy and Security screen and click Open Anyway

Open Anwway

OWASP Zap is now Installed

Insallled

Ready for a Scan

Blind Scan

But before we do let’s check out the Options

Options

OWASP Zap allows you to label reports to ad from anyone you want.

Report Label Options

Now let’s update the program and plugins, Click Manage Add-ons

Manage Adons

Click Update All to Update addons

Updates

I clicked Update All

Plugins

Installed some plugins

Marketplace

Zap is Ready

Zap

Add a site and right click on the site and you can perform an active scan or port scan.

Right click Zap

First Scan (https failed)

https failed

I enabled unsafe SSL/TLS Renegotiation.

Allow Unsafe HTTPS

This did not work and this guide said I needed to install the “Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files” from here.

Cryptography Files OSX

The extract files to /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/%your_jdk%/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security

Extract

I restarted OWASP Zap and tried to scan my site buy it appears Cloudflare (that I recently set up) was blocking my scans and reported error 403. I decided to scan another site of mine that was not on Cloudflare but had the same Lets Encrypt style SSL cert.

fyi: I own and set up the site I queried below.

Zap Results

OWASP Zap scan performed over 800 requests and tried traversal exploits and many other checks. Do repair any major failures you find.

Zan Scan

Generating a Report

To generate a report click Report then the appropriate generation menu of choice.

Generate Report

FYI: The High Priority Alert is a false positive with an HTML item being mistaken for a CC number.

I hope this guide helps someone. Happy software/server hardening and good luck.

More Reading

Check out my Kali Linux guide.

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Revision History

V1.3 fixed hasting typo.

v1.2 False Positive

v1.1 updated main features

v1.0 Initial post

Setting up a website to use Cloudflare on a VM hosted on Vultr and Namecheap

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This guide will show how you can set up a website to use Cloudflare on a VM hosted on Vultr and Namecheap

I have a number of guides on moving hasting away form CPanel, Setting up VM’s on AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean along with installing and managing WordPress from the command line. This post will show how to let Cloudflare handle the DNS for the domain.

Update 2018: For the best performing VM host (UpCloud) read my guide on the awesome UpCloud VM hosts (get $25 free credit by signing up here).

Snip from here “Cloudflare’s enterprise-class web application firewall (WAF) protects your Internet property from common vulnerabilities like SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting, and cross-site forgery requests with no changes to your existing infrastructure.”

Buy a Domain 

Buy a domain name from Namecheap here.

Domain names for just 88 cents!

Cloudflare Benefits (Free Plan)

  • DDoS Attack Protection (Huge network to absorb attacks DDoS attacks over 600Gbps are no problem for our 15 Tbps networks)
  • Global CDN
  • Shared SSL certificate (I disabled this and opted to use my own)
  • Access to audit logs
  • 3 page rules (maximum)

View paid plan options here.

Cloudflare CDN map

Cloudflare CDN says it can load assets up to 2x faster, 60% less bandwidth from your servers by delivering assets from 127 data centres.

Cloudflare Global Network

Setup

You will need to sign up at cloudflare.com

Cloudflare

After you create an account you will be prompted to add a siteAdd SiteCloudflare will pull your public DNS records to import.

Query DNS

You will be prompted to select a plan (I selected free)

Plan Select

Verify DNS settings to import.

DNS Import

You will now be asked to change your DNS nameservers with your domain reseller

DNS Nameservers

TIP: If you have an SSL cert (e.g Lets Encrypt) already setup head to the crypto section and select ” Full (Strict)” to prevent ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS errors.

Strict SSL

Cloudflare UI

I asked Twitter if they could kindly load my site so I could see if Cloudflare dashboard/stats were loading.

The Cloudflare CTO responded.  🙂

Confirm Cloudflare link to a domain from the OSX Comand line

Caching Rule

I set up the following caching rule to cache everything for 8 hours instead of WordPress pages

Page Rules

“fearby.com.com/wp-*” Cache level: Bypass

“fearby.com.com/wp-admin/post.php*” Cache level: Bypass

“fearby.com/*” Cache Everything, Edge Cache TTL: 8 Hours

Cache Results

Cache appears to be sitting at 50% after 12 hours.  having cache os dynamic pages out there is ok unless I need to fix a typo, then I need to login to Cloudflare and clear the cache manually (or wait 8 hours)

Performance after a few hours

DNS times in gtmetrix have now fallen to a sub 200ms (Y Slow is now a respectable A, it was a C before).  I just need to wait for caching and minification to kick in.

DNS Improved

webpagetest.org results are awesome

See here: https://www.webpagetest.org/result/180314_PB_7660dfbe65d56b94a60d7a604ca250b3/

  • Load Time: 1.80s
  • First Byte 0.176s
  • Start Render 1.200s

webpagetest

Google Page Speed Insights Report

Mobile: 78/100

Desktop: 87/100

Check with https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

Update 24th March 2018 Attacked?

I noticed a spike in and traffic (incoming and threats) on the 24th of March 2018.

I logged into Cloudflare on my mobile device and turned on Under Attack Mode.

Under Attack Flow

Cloudflare was now adding a delay screen in the middle of my initial page load. Read more here.  A few hours after the Attach started it was over.

After the Attack

I looked at the bandwidth and found no increase in traffic from my initial host VM. Nice.

cloudflare-attack-001

Thanks, Cloudflare.

Cloudflare Pros

  • Enabling Attack mode was simple.
  • Soaked up an attack.
  • Free Tier
  • Many Reports
  • Option to force HTTPS over HTTP
  • Option to ban/challenge suspicious IP’s and set challenge timeframes.
  • Ability to setup IP firewall rules and Application Firewalls.
  • User-agent blocking
  • Lockdown URL’s to IP’s (pro feature)
  • Option to minify Javascript, CSS and HTML
  • Option to accelerate mobile links
  • Brotli compression on assets served.
  • Optio to enable BETA Rocket loader for Javascript performance tweaks.
  • Run Javascript service workers from the 120+ CDN’s
  • Page/URL rules o perform custom actions (redirects, skip cache, Encryption etc)
  • HTTP/2 on, IPV6 ON
  • Option to setup load balancing/failover
  • CTO of Cloudflare responded in Twitter 🙂
  • Option to enable rate limiting (charged at 10,000 hits for $0.05c)
  • Option to block countries (pro feature)
  • Option to install apps in Cloudflare like(Goole Analytics,

Cloudflare Cons

  • No more logging into NameCheap to perform DNS management (I now goto Cloudflare, Namecheap are awesome).
  • Cloudflare Support was slow/confusing (I ended up figuring out the redirect problem myself).
  • Some sort of verify Cloudflare Setup/DNS/CDN access would be nice. After I set this up my gtmetrix load times were the same and I was not sure if DNS needs to replicate? Changing minify settings in Cloudflare did not seem to happen.
  • WordPress draft posts are being cached even though page riles block wp-admin page caching.
  • Would be nice to have ad automatic Under Attack mode
  • Now all sub-domains were transferred in the setup ( id did not know for weeks)

Cloudflare status

Check out https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/ for status updates.

Don’t forget to install the CloudFlare Plugin for WordPress if you use WordPress.

More Reading

Check out my OWASP Zap and Kali Linux self-application Penetration testing posts.

I hope this guide helps someone.

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Revision History

v1.8 host Command from the OSX CLI

v1.7 Subdomain error

v1.6 Cloudflare Attack

v1.5 WordPress Plugin

v1.4 More Reading

v1.3 added WAF snip

v1.2 Added Google Page Speed Insights and webpage rest results

v1.1 Added Y-Slow

v1.0 Initial post