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Upgrading an Ubuntu server on UpCloud to add more CPU, Memory and Disk Space

June 25, 2018 by Simon

Upgrading an Ubuntu server on UpCloud to add more CPU, Memory and Disk Space

If you have not read my previous posts I have now moved my blog from Vultr to the awesome UpCloud host (signup using this link to get $25 free credit).

Recently 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.

Spoiler: UpCloud performance is great.

Why Upgrade

I have 1 CPU, 1 GB memory and 50GB storage and it is running well? I have PHP child workers set up and have set up the preferred use of memory over swap file usage.

Before UpCloud, when I had 512MB ram on Vultr I had multiple NGINX crashed a day so I used a bash script and scheduled a cron job to clear memory cache when memory fell below 100MB (view the script here). To further increase the speed of the WordPress I have configured the OS to use memory over the disk. About once a day free memory falls below 100MB (this is not a problem as my script clears cached items automatically).

I’d like to add more memory as I am working on some things (watch this space) and I will use the extra memory. I’d prefer the server is set up now for the expected workload.

How to Upgrade

This is how I upgraded from 1xCPU/2GB Memory/50GB Storage/2TB Transferred Data to a 2 CPU/4GB Mmeory/80GB Storage/4TB Transferred Data server.

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

Upgrade an UpCloud VM

I shut down my existing VM. Read this guide to setup a VM.

shutdown -P

Login to the UpCloud dashboard, select your server (confirm the server has shut down) and click General Settings, choose the upgrade and click Update.

I confirmed the upgrade options (2x CPU, 4096 MB Memory).

Click Update

After 10 seconds you can start your server from the UpCloud server.

I confirmed the CPU upgrade was visible in the VM

cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 63
model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2687W v3 @ 3.10GHz
stepping        : 2
microcode       : 0x1
cpu MHz         : 3099.978
cache size      : 16384 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 2
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon rep_good nopl xtopology cpuid pni pclmulqdq ssse3 fma cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm invpcid_single pti fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid xsaveopt arat
bugs            : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass
bogomips        : 6199.95
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor       : 1
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 63
model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2687W v3 @ 3.10GHz
stepping        : 2
microcode       : 0x1
cpu MHz         : 3099.978
cache size      : 16384 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 1
cpu cores       : 2
apicid          : 1
initial apicid  : 1
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon rep_good nopl xtopology cpuid pni pclmulqdq ssse3 fma cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm invpcid_single pti fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid xsaveopt arat
bugs            : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass
bogomips        : 6199.95
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

Software Tweaks Post Upgrade.

I added these settings to the top of /etc/nginx/nginx.conf to ensure the extra CPU was used.

worker_processes auto;
worker_cpu_affinity auto;

I increased PHP FPM ( /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini ) to increase the memory usage and child workers. I doubled child workers and max memeory limit.

memory_limit = 3072M
pm.max_children = 80
pm.start_servers = 30
pm.min_spare_servers = 10
pm.max_spare_servers = 30

I restarted NGINX and PHP

nginx -t
nginx -s reload
/etc/init.d/nginx restart
service php7.2-fpm restart

I tweaked WordPress max memory limits

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT','3072M');
define( 'WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT','3072M');

MySQL Tweaks: I logged into MySQL

mysql -u root -p

I ran “SHOW GLOBAL STATUS” to view stats

mysql> SHOW GLOBAL STATUS;
+-----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| Variable_name                                 | Value                                            |
+-----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| Aborted_clients                               | 0                                                |
| Aborted_connects                              | 0                                                |
| Binlog_cache_disk_use                         | 0                                                |
| Binlog_cache_use                              | 0                                                |
| Binlog_stmt_cache_disk_use                    | 0                                                |
| Binlog_stmt_cache_use                         | 0                                                |
| Bytes_received                                | 3179986                                          |
| Bytes_sent                                    | 223872114                                        |
| Com_admin_commands                            | 0                                                |
| Com_assign_to_keycache                        | 0                                                |
| Com_alter_db                                  | 0                                                |
| Com_alter_db_upgrade                          | 0                                                |
| Com_alter_event                               | 0                                                |
| Com_alter_function                            | 0                                                |
| Com_alter_instance                            | 0                                                |
| Com_alter_procedure                           | 0                                                |
| Com_alter_server                              | 0                                                |
| Com_alter_table                               | 0                                                |
| Com_alter_tablespace                          | 0                                                |
| Com_alter_user                                | 0                                                |
| Com_analyze                                   | 0                                                |
| Com_begin                                     | 0                                                |
| Com_binlog                                    | 0                                                |
| Com_call_procedure                            | 0                                                |
| Com_change_db                                 | 284                                              |
| Com_change_master                             | 0                                                |
| Com_change_repl_filter                        | 0                                                |
| Com_check                                     | 0                                                |
| Com_checksum                                  | 0                                                |
| Com_commit                                    | 0                                                |
| Com_create_db                                 | 0                                                |
| Com_create_event                              | 0                                                |
| Com_create_function                           | 0                                                |
| Com_create_index                              | 0                                                |
| Com_create_procedure                          | 0                                                |
| Com_create_server                             | 0                                                |
| Com_create_table                              | 0                                                |
| Com_create_trigger                            | 0                                                |
| Com_create_udf                                | 0                                                |
| Com_create_user                               | 0                                                |
| Com_create_view                               | 0                                                |
| Com_dealloc_sql                               | 0                                                |
| Com_delete                                    | 18                                               |
| Com_delete_multi                              | 0                                                |
| Com_do                                        | 0                                                |
| Com_drop_db                                   | 0                                                |
| Com_drop_event                                | 0                                                |
| Com_drop_function                             | 0                                                |
| Com_drop_index                                | 0                                                |
| Com_drop_procedure                            | 0                                                |
| Com_drop_server                               | 0                                                |
| Com_drop_table                                | 0                                                |
| Com_drop_trigger                              | 0                                                |
| Com_drop_user                                 | 0                                                |
| Com_drop_view                                 | 0                                                |
| Com_empty_query                               | 0                                                |
| Com_execute_sql                               | 0                                                |
| Com_explain_other                             | 0                                                |
| Com_flush                                     | 0                                                |
| Com_get_diagnostics                           | 0                                                |
| Com_grant                                     | 0                                                |
| Com_ha_close                                  | 0                                                |
| Com_ha_open                                   | 0                                                |
| Com_ha_read                                   | 0                                                |
| Com_help                                      | 0                                                |
| Com_insert                                    | 342                                              |
| Com_insert_select                             | 0                                                |
| Com_install_plugin                            | 0                                                |
| Com_kill                                      | 0                                                |
| Com_load                                      | 0                                                |
| Com_lock_tables                               | 0                                                |
| Com_optimize                                  | 0                                                |
| Com_preload_keys                              | 0                                                |
| Com_prepare_sql                               | 0                                                |
| Com_purge                                     | 0                                                |
| Com_purge_before_date                         | 0                                                |
| Com_release_savepoint                         | 0                                                |
| Com_rename_table                              | 0                                                |
| Com_rename_user                               | 0                                                |
| Com_repair                                    | 0                                                |
| Com_replace                                   | 0                                                |
| Com_replace_select                            | 0                                                |
| Com_reset                                     | 0                                                |
| Com_resignal                                  | 0                                                |
| Com_revoke                                    | 0                                                |
| Com_revoke_all                                | 0                                                |
| Com_rollback                                  | 0                                                |
| Com_rollback_to_savepoint                     | 0                                                |
| Com_savepoint                                 | 0                                                |
| Com_select                                    | 16358                                            |
| Com_set_option                                | 849                                              |
| Com_signal                                    | 0                                                |
| Com_show_binlog_events                        | 0                                                |
| Com_show_binlogs                              | 0                                                |
| Com_show_charsets                             | 0                                                |
| Com_show_collations                           | 0                                                |
| Com_show_create_db                            | 0                                                |
| Com_show_create_event                         | 0                                                |
| Com_show_create_func                          | 0                                                |
| Com_show_create_proc                          | 0                                                |
| Com_show_create_table                         | 0                                                |
| Com_show_create_trigger                       | 0                                                |
| Com_show_databases                            | 3                                                |
| Com_show_engine_logs                          | 0                                                |
| Com_show_engine_mutex                         | 0                                                |
| Com_show_engine_status                        | 0                                                |
| Com_show_events                               | 0                                                |
| Com_show_errors                               | 0                                                |
| Com_show_fields                               | 921                                              |
| Com_show_function_code                        | 0                                                |
| Com_show_function_status                      | 0                                                |
| Com_show_grants                               | 0                                                |
| Com_show_keys                                 | 1                                                |
| Com_show_master_status                        | 0                                                |
| Com_show_open_tables                          | 0                                                |
| Com_show_plugins                              | 0                                                |
| Com_show_privileges                           | 0                                                |
| Com_show_procedure_code                       | 0                                                |
| Com_show_procedure_status                     | 0                                                |
| Com_show_processlist                          | 0                                                |
| Com_show_profile                              | 0                                                |
| Com_show_profiles                             | 0                                                |
| Com_show_relaylog_events                      | 0                                                |
| Com_show_slave_hosts                          | 0                                                |
| Com_show_slave_status                         | 0                                                |
| Com_show_status                               | 6                                                |
| Com_show_storage_engines                      | 0                                                |
| Com_show_table_status                         | 0                                                |
| Com_show_tables                               | 2                                                |
| Com_show_triggers                             | 0                                                |
| Com_show_variables                            | 6                                                |
| Com_show_warnings                             | 1                                                |
| Com_show_create_user                          | 0                                                |
| Com_shutdown                                  | 0                                                |
| Com_slave_start                               | 0                                                |
| Com_slave_stop                                | 0                                                |
| Com_group_replication_start                   | 0                                                |
| Com_group_replication_stop                    | 0                                                |
| Com_stmt_execute                              | 4                                                |
| Com_stmt_close                                | 4                                                |
| Com_stmt_fetch                                | 0                                                |
| Com_stmt_prepare                              | 4                                                |
| Com_stmt_reset                                | 0                                                |
| Com_stmt_send_long_data                       | 4                                                |
| Com_truncate                                  | 2                                                |
| Com_uninstall_plugin                          | 0                                                |
| Com_unlock_tables                             | 0                                                |
| Com_update                                    | 70                                               |
| Com_update_multi                              | 0                                                |
| Com_xa_commit                                 | 0                                                |
| Com_xa_end                                    | 0                                                |
| Com_xa_prepare                                | 0                                                |
| Com_xa_recover                                | 0                                                |
| Com_xa_rollback                               | 0                                                |
| Com_xa_start                                  | 0                                                |
| Com_stmt_reprepare                            | 0                                                |
| Connection_errors_accept                      | 0                                                |
| Connection_errors_internal                    | 0                                                |
| Connection_errors_max_connections             | 0                                                |
| Connection_errors_peer_address                | 0                                                |
| Connection_errors_select                      | 0                                                |
| Connection_errors_tcpwrap                     | 0                                                |
| Connections                                   | 292                                              |
| Created_tmp_disk_tables                       | 1124                                             |
| Created_tmp_files                             | 30                                               |
| Created_tmp_tables                            | 1369                                             |
| Delayed_errors                                | 0                                                |
| Delayed_insert_threads                        | 0                                                |
| Delayed_writes                                | 0                                                |
| Flush_commands                                | 1                                                |
| Handler_commit                                | 6094                                             |
| Handler_delete                                | 33                                               |
| Handler_discover                              | 0                                                |
| Handler_external_lock                         | 38571                                            |
| Handler_mrr_init                              | 0                                                |
| Handler_prepare                               | 0                                                |
| Handler_read_first                            | 2299                                             |
| Handler_read_key                              | 134761                                           |
| Handler_read_last                             | 237                                              |
| Handler_read_next                             | 310119                                           |
| Handler_read_prev                             | 2733                                             |
| Handler_read_rnd                              | 222350                                           |
| Handler_read_rnd_next                         | 472820                                           |
| Handler_rollback                              | 0                                                |
| Handler_savepoint                             | 0                                                |
| Handler_savepoint_rollback                    | 0                                                |
| Handler_update                                | 15605                                            |
| Handler_write                                 | 17310                                            |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_dump_status                | Dumping of buffer pool not started               |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_load_status                | Buffer pool(s) load completed at 180624 23:38:01 |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_resize_status              |                                                  |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_data                 | 1035                                             |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_bytes_data                 | 16957440                                         |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_dirty                | 0                                                |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_bytes_dirty                | 0                                                |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_flushed              | 1936                                             |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_free                 | 7144                                             |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_misc                 | 13                                               |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_pages_total                | 8192                                             |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_read_ahead_rnd             | 0                                                |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_read_ahead                 | 0                                                |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_read_ahead_evicted         | 0                                                |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_read_requests              | 306665                                           |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_reads                      | 950                                              |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_wait_free                  | 0                                                |
| Innodb_buffer_pool_write_requests             | 26509                                            |
| Innodb_data_fsyncs                            | 1229                                             |
| Innodb_data_pending_fsyncs                    | 0                                                |
| Innodb_data_pending_reads                     | 0                                                |
| Innodb_data_pending_writes                    | 0                                                |
| Innodb_data_read                              | 16273920                                         |
| Innodb_data_reads                             | 1078                                             |
| Innodb_data_writes                            | 2857                                             |
| Innodb_data_written                           | 53379584                                         |
| Innodb_dblwr_pages_written                    | 1275                                             |
| Innodb_dblwr_writes                           | 109                                              |
| Innodb_log_waits                              | 0                                                |
| Innodb_log_write_requests                     | 450                                              |
| Innodb_log_writes                             | 585                                              |
| Innodb_os_log_fsyncs                          | 793                                              |
| Innodb_os_log_pending_fsyncs                  | 0                                                |
| Innodb_os_log_pending_writes                  | 0                                                |
| Innodb_os_log_written                         | 664064                                           |
| Innodb_page_size                              | 16384                                            |
| Innodb_pages_created                          | 56                                               |
| Innodb_pages_read                             | 988                                              |
| Innodb_pages_written                          | 1936                                             |
| Innodb_row_lock_current_waits                 | 0                                                |
| Innodb_row_lock_time                          | 0                                                |
| Innodb_row_lock_time_avg                      | 0                                                |
| Innodb_row_lock_time_max                      | 0                                                |
| Innodb_row_lock_waits                         | 0                                                |
| Innodb_rows_deleted                           | 2                                                |
| Innodb_rows_inserted                          | 19219                                            |
| Innodb_rows_read                              | 249102                                           |
| Innodb_rows_updated                           | 77                                               |
| Innodb_num_open_files                         | 81                                               |
| Innodb_truncated_status_writes                | 0                                                |
| Innodb_available_undo_logs                    | 128                                              |
| Key_blocks_not_flushed                        | 0                                                |
| Key_blocks_unused                             | 12751                                            |
| Key_blocks_used                               | 645                                              |
| Key_read_requests                             | 321877                                           |
| Key_reads                                     | 648                                              |
| Key_write_requests                            | 196                                              |
| Key_writes                                    | 150                                              |
| Locked_connects                               | 0                                                |
| Max_execution_time_exceeded                   | 0                                                |
| Max_execution_time_set                        | 0                                                |
| Max_execution_time_set_failed                 | 0                                                |
| Max_used_connections                          | 3                                                |
| Max_used_connections_time                     | 2018-06-24 23:43:48                              |
| Not_flushed_delayed_rows                      | 0                                                |
| Ongoing_anonymous_transaction_count           | 0                                                |
| Open_files                                    | 229                                              |
| Open_streams                                  | 0                                                |
| Open_table_definitions                        | 206                                              |
| Open_tables                                   | 786                                              |
| Opened_files                                  | 502                                              |
| Opened_table_definitions                      | 208                                              |
| Opened_tables                                 | 817                                              |
| Performance_schema_accounts_lost              | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_cond_classes_lost          | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_cond_instances_lost        | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_digest_lost                | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_file_classes_lost          | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_file_handles_lost          | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_file_instances_lost        | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_hosts_lost                 | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_index_stat_lost            | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_locker_lost                | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_memory_classes_lost        | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_metadata_lock_lost         | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_mutex_classes_lost         | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_mutex_instances_lost       | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_nested_statement_lost      | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_prepared_statements_lost   | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_program_lost               | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_rwlock_classes_lost        | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_rwlock_instances_lost      | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_session_connect_attrs_lost | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_socket_classes_lost        | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_socket_instances_lost      | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_stage_classes_lost         | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_statement_classes_lost     | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_table_handles_lost         | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_table_instances_lost       | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_table_lock_stat_lost       | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_thread_classes_lost        | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_thread_instances_lost      | 0                                                |
| Performance_schema_users_lost                 | 0                                                |
| Prepared_stmt_count                           | 0                                                |
| Qcache_free_blocks                            | 1                                                |
| Qcache_free_memory                            | 16760152                                         |
| Qcache_hits                                   | 0                                                |
| Qcache_inserts                                | 0                                                |
| Qcache_lowmem_prunes                          | 0                                                |
| Qcache_not_cached                             | 16355                                            |
| Qcache_queries_in_cache                       | 0                                                |
| Qcache_total_blocks                           | 1                                                |
| Queries                                       | 19164                                            |
| Questions                                     | 19155                                            |
| Select_full_join                              | 0                                                |
| Select_full_range_join                        | 0                                                |
| Select_range                                  | 2677                                             |
| Select_range_check                            | 0                                                |
| Select_scan                                   | 2098                                             |
| Slave_open_temp_tables                        | 0                                                |
| Slow_launch_threads                           | 0                                                |
| Slow_queries                                  | 0                                                |
| Sort_merge_passes                             | 12                                               |
| Sort_range                                    | 4859                                             |
| Sort_rows                                     | 244452                                           |
| Sort_scan                                     | 854                                              |
| Ssl_accept_renegotiates                       | 0                                                |
| Ssl_accepts                                   | 0                                                |
| Ssl_callback_cache_hits                       | 0                                                |
| Ssl_cipher                                    |                                                  |
| Ssl_cipher_list                               |                                                  |
| Ssl_client_connects                           | 0                                                |
| Ssl_connect_renegotiates                      | 0                                                |
| Ssl_ctx_verify_depth                          | 0                                                |
| Ssl_ctx_verify_mode                           | 0                                                |
| Ssl_default_timeout                           | 0                                                |
| Ssl_finished_accepts                          | 0                                                |
| Ssl_finished_connects                         | 0                                                |
| Ssl_server_not_after                          |                                                  |
| Ssl_server_not_before                         |                                                  |
| Ssl_session_cache_hits                        | 0                                                |
| Ssl_session_cache_misses                      | 0                                                |
| Ssl_session_cache_mode                        | NONE                                             |
| Ssl_session_cache_overflows                   | 0                                                |
| Ssl_session_cache_size                        | 0                                                |
| Ssl_session_cache_timeouts                    | 0                                                |
| Ssl_sessions_reused                           | 0                                                |
| Ssl_used_session_cache_entries                | 0                                                |
| Ssl_verify_depth                              | 0                                                |
| Ssl_verify_mode                               | 0                                                |
| Ssl_version                                   |                                                  |
| Table_locks_immediate                         | 11962                                            |
| Table_locks_waited                            | 0                                                |
| Table_open_cache_hits                         | 19395                                            |
| Table_open_cache_misses                       | 817                                              |
| Table_open_cache_overflows                    | 12                                               |
| Tc_log_max_pages_used                         | 0                                                |
| Tc_log_page_size                              | 0                                                |
| Tc_log_page_waits                             | 0                                                |
| Threads_cached                                | 2                                                |
| Threads_connected                             | 1                                                |
| Threads_created                               | 3                                                |
| Threads_running                               | 1                                                |
| Uptime                                        | 2944                                             |
| Uptime_since_flush_status                     | 2944                                             |
+-----------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
353 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Read more on SHOW GLOBAL STATUS here. Read more on the values here.

I can see NO major errors here (possibly due to UpClouds awesome disk IO) so I won’t be making memory tweaks in MySQL. Sign Up using this link and get $25 credit free on UpCloud and see for yourself how fast they are.

Configure Ubuntu System Memory Usage

Edit /etc/sysctl.conf

Add the following to allow things to sit in ram longer

vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

Snip from: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt

This percentage value controls the tendency of the kernel to reclaim the memory which is used for caching of directory and inode objects.

At the default value of vfs_cache_pressure=100 the kernel will attempt to reclaim dentries and inodes at a "fair" rate with respect to pagecache and swapcache reclaim.  Decreasing vfs_cache_pressure causes the kernel to prefer to retain dentry and inode caches. When vfs_cache_pressure=0, the kernel will never reclaim dentries and inodes due to memory pressure and this can easily lead to out-of-memory conditions. Increasing vfs_cache_pressure beyond 100 causes the kernel to prefer to reclaim dentries and inodes.

Increasing vfs_cache_pressure significantly beyond 100 may have negative performance impact. Reclaim code needs to take various locks to find freeable directory and inode objects. With vfs_cache_pressure=1000, it will look for ten times more freeable objects than there are."

Read these pages here and here regarding setting MySQL memory.

Reboot

shutdown -r now

Resize the disk

The 2x CPU, 4GB memory plan comes with 80GB storage allowance. My disk at present is 50GB and I will update the size soon following this guide soon.

Quick Benchmark

I used loader.io to load 500 users to access my site in 1 minute.

The benchmark worked with no errors.

This benchmark was performed with no Cloudflare caching. I should get Cloudflare caching working again to lower the average response time. I loaded my website manually in Google Chrome while loader.io threw 500 users at my site and it loaded very fast.

Conclusion

After a few days, I checked my memory logs and there were no low memory triggers (just normal internal memory management triggers). Ubuntu was happier.

This graph was taken before I set “vm.vfs_cache_pressure” so I will update this graph in a few days.

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

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Revision History

1.0 Initial Post

How to use the UpCloud API to manage your UpCloud servers

June 17, 2018 by Simon

How to use the UpCloud API to manage your UpCloud servers.

If you have not read my previous posts I have now moved my blog etc to the awesome UpCloud host. Sign up using this link to get $25 free credit.

I recently 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.

Spoiler: UpCloud performance is great.

I have never had an UpCloud page load take longer than 2 seconds since moving.

UpCloud API

UpCloud has an API that we can opt into to using where we can manage servers. Read the official UpCloud API documentation here.

The API allows you to control:

Accounts
Pricing
Zones
Timezones
Plans
Servers
Storages
IP-Addresses
Firewall
Tags
etc

Create a sub-account to query the API

You should create a new user account (in the UpCloud dasbboard) just for API access. I created two accounts for use on my server and on my home laptop and my server (and set a limiting IP(s) that can access it).

Create a Sub Account for API Access

Click My Accounts,
Click User Accounts,
Click Change on your user and enable API connections.
TIP: Set up an IP rule to limit access to your API for security (I set up a VPN to get a static IP on my dynamic IP Internet host at home)).
Save the changes

TIP: Lock down the account to have the minimum permissions required.

e.g

Disable access to the control panel (Untick).
Allow API Connections (Tick) and specify an IP
Disable access to billing contact (Untick).
Disable access to billing section in the control panel (Untick).
Disable allowing of emails to billing contact (Untick).
Allow or Remove access to all server (or manually add access to desired servers)
Allow or Remove access to modify storage (or manually allow or remove access to desired storage)
etc

Save the account.

Now let’s make our first API call

I use OSX and I use the awesome Paw API testing tool from https://paw.cloud (This is not a plug, they are awesome). Postman is a popular API testing tool too. Any good programing language or CLI will allow you to send API requests.

First, let’s prepare the authorization string (this is a Base64 encoded combination of your username and password) read more here.

Head over to https://www.base64encode.org/
Click the Encode tab
Add your “username:password” (without the quotes).
Click Encode

A Base64 string will be outputted 🙂

e.g > eW91cmFwaXVzZXJuYW1lOnlvdXJzdXBlcnNlY3VyZXBhc3N3b3Jk

fyi

You can encode also Encode and Decode Base64 from the Ubuntu Command line

Encode Base64 from the CLI Sample

echo -n 'yourapiusername:yoursupersecurepassword' | base64
eW91cmFwaXVzZXJuYW1lOnlvdXJzdXBlcnNlY3VyZXBhc3N3b3Jk

Decode Base64 from the CLI Sample

echo `echo eW91cmFwaXVzZXJuYW1lOnlvdXJzdXBlcnNlY3VyZXBhc3N3b3Jk | base64 --decode`
yourapiusername:yoursupersecurepassword

Now we can add an “Authorization Basic” token to the API request in Paw.

A quick test of the UpCloud Prices API endpoint https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/price reveals the API is working.

I can now see a full breakdown of my service prices in JSON 🙂

Query My Account

OK, Let’s see how much credit I have left by querying the https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/account, I duplicated the item in Paw and changed the URL to https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/account but no data returned?

I had to enable “Access to Billing section in Control Panel” for the user before this data returned from the API (make sense).

> HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Query (GET)

GET /1.2/account HTTP/1.1
Host: api.upcloud.com
User-Agent: Paw/3.1.7 (Macintosh; OS X/10.13.5) NSURLConnection/1452.23
Authorization: Basic *******************************************

Output

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 04:23:32 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 91
Server: Apache

{
   "account" : {
      "credits" : 2500.00,
      "username" : "yourapiusername"
   }
}

“2500.00” = cents ($25)

Query All of Your Servers

Ok, Let’s get server information by querying https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/server

Query (GET)

GET /1.2/server HTTP/1.1
Host: api.upcloud.com
User-Agent: Paw/3.1.7 (Macintosh; OS X/10.13.5) NSURLConnection/1452.23
Authorization: Basic ##############base64hash##############

Output

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 04:32:22 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 1154
Server: Apache

{
   "servers" : {
      "server" : [
         {
            "core_number" : "1",
            "hostname" : "server1nameredacted.com",
            "license" : 0,
            "memory_amount" : "2048",
            "plan" : "1xCPU-2GB",
            "plan_ipv4_bytes" : "3472464313",
            "plan_ipv6_bytes" : "166293599",
            "state" : "started",
            "tags" : {
               "tag" : [
                  "tag1"
               ]
            },
            "title" : "server1nameredacted.com",
            "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
            "zone" : "us-chi1"
         },
         {
            "core_number" : "1",
            "hostname" : "server2nameredacted.com",
            "license" : 0,
            "memory_amount" : "1024",
            "plan" : "1xCPU-1GB",
            "plan_ipv4_bytes" : "198911",
            "plan_ipv6_bytes" : "19742",
            "state" : "started",
            "tags" : {
               "tag" : [
                  "tag2"
               ]
            },
            "title" : "server1nameredacted.com",
            "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
            "zone" : "us-chi1"
         }
      ]
   }
}

Query Server Information

I have redated the UUID’s for my servers but once you know them you can query them by hitting https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/server/########-####-####-####-############

Query (GET)

GET /1.2/server/########-####-####-####-############ HTTP/1.1
Host: api.upcloud.com
User-Agent: Paw/3.1.7 (Macintosh; OS X/10.13.5) NSURLConnection/1452.23
Authorization: Basic ##############base64hash##############

Output

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 04:45:14 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 1656
Server: Apache

{
   "server" : {
      "boot_order" : "cdrom,disk",
      "core_number" : "1",
      "firewall" : "on",
      "host" : redacted,
      "hostname" : "server1nameredacted.com",
      "ip_addresses" : {
         "ip_address" : [
            {
               "access" : "private",
               "address" : "##.#.#.###",
               "family" : "IPv4"
            },
            {
               "access" : "public",
               "address" : "###.###.###.###",
               "family" : "IPv4",
               "part_of_plan" : "yes"
            },
            {
               "access" : "public",
               "address" : "####:####:####:####:####:####:########",
               "family" : "IPv6"
            }
         ]
      },
      "license" : 0,
      "memory_amount" : "2048",
      "nic_model" : "virtio",
      "plan" : "1xCPU-2GB",
      "plan_ipv4_bytes" : "3519033266",
      "plan_ipv6_bytes" : "168200052",
      "state" : "started",
      "storage_devices" : {
         "storage_device" : [
            {
               "address" : "virtio:0",
               "boot_disk" : "0",
               "part_of_plan" : "yes",
               "storage" : "########-####-####-####-############",
               "storage_size" : 50,
               "storage_title" : "system",
               "type" : "disk"
            }
         ]
      },
      "tags" : {
         "tag" : [
            "fearby"
         ]
      },
      "timezone" : "Australia/Sydney",
      "title" : "server1nameredacted.com",
      "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "video_model" : "cirrus",
      "vnc" : "off",
      "vnc_password" : "#########################",
      "zone" : "us-chi1"
   }
}

The servers name, IPv4 and IPV6 network adapters are listed, CPU(s), Memory, Disk Sized and UUID’s are all visible 🙂

Surprisingly the VNC password is visible (enabling access to the root console).

TIP: Ensure your API account is safe and secure.

Query Storage Information

Now, Let’s query the storage with the GUID from above by querying https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############

Query (GET)

GET /1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############ HTTP/1.1
Host: api.upcloud.com
User-Agent: Paw/3.1.7 (Macintosh; OS X/10.13.5) NSURLConnection/1452.23
Authorization: Basic  ##############base64hash##############

Output

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 04:53:36 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 559
Server: Apache

{
   "storage" : {
      "access" : "private",
      "backup_rule" : {},
      "backups" : {
         "backup" : [
            "########-####-####-####-############"
         ]
      },
      "license" : 0,
      "part_of_plan" : "yes",
      "servers" : {
         "server" : [
            "########-####-####-####-############"
         ]
      },
      "size" : 50,
      "state" : "online",
      "tier" : "maxiops",
      "title" : "system",
      "type" : "normal",
      "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "zone" : "us-chi1"
   }
}

I can see information about the storage’s assigned server and backups 🙂

Query Backup Information

Backup storage can be queried with the same storge API endpoint https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############

Query (GET)

GET /1.2/storage/014fd483-ea90-4055-b445-bf2011951999 HTTP/1.1
Host: api.upcloud.com
User-Agent: Paw/3.1.7 (Macintosh; OS X/10.13.5) NSURLConnection/1452.23
Authorization: Basic ##############base64hash##############

Output

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 05:01:11 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 412
Server: Apache

{
   "storage" : {
      "access" : "private",
      "created" : "2018-06-16T04:47:56Z",
      "license" : 0,
      "origin" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "servers" : {
         "server" : []
      },
      "size" : 50,
      "state" : "online",
      "title" : "On-Demand Backup",
      "type" : "backup",
      "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "zone" : "us-chi1"
   }
}

Rename Backup

One thing that I would like to be able to do is to rename on-demand backups in the UpCloud dashboard (this is not a feature yet) but I can rename manual backup’s in the API though 🙂

Boring “On-Demand Backup” label.

I tried sending JSON to https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############ to rename a backup but kept getting an error?

JSON

{
> “storage”: {
> “title”: “Latest manual backup , Working NGINX, PHP, MySQL w Tweaks”,
> “size”: “50”
> }
> }

Result

> “error_code” : “CONTENT_TYPE_INVALID”,
> “error_message” : “The Content-Type header has an invalid value.”

I googled and found an old manual for UpClouds API (official support here).

I added these missing content type headers (108 was the length in chars of the payload)

> Content-Type: application/json; Charset=UTF-8'
> Content-Length: 108

Still no go?

I think the content length value is wrong, more here.

I fixed it, it turned out I had a semicolon in the Content-Type value. The JSON RFC always assumes that Content-Type is UTF8 encoded (more here).

This Fails

Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8

This Works

Content-Type: application/json

Now I can rename my Backup (storage). I manually calculated the length of the JSON payload and added a “Content-Length” header and value.

Query (PUT)

PUT /1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############ HTTP/1.1
Host: api.upcloud.com
User-Agent: Paw/3.1.7 (Macintosh; OS X/10.13.5) NSURLConnection/1452.23
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 113
Authorization: Basic ##############base64hash##############

{"storage":{"size":"50","title":"Latest manual backup , Working NGINX, PHP, MySQL w Tweaks"}}

Output

HTTP/1.1 202 ACCEPTED
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 05:47:02 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 453
Server: Apache

{
   "storage" : {
      "access" : "private",
      "created" : "2018-06-16T04:47:56Z",
      "license" : 0,
      "origin" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "servers" : {
         "server" : []
      },
      "size" : 50,
      "state" : "online",
      "title" : "Latest manual backup , Working NGINX, PHP, MySQL w Tweaks",
      "type" : "backup",
      "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "zone" : "us-chi1"
   }
}

Success 🙂

Create a Backup

Backups can be performed with a “/backup” added to the end of the query string.

Query (POST)

POST /1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############/backup HTTP/1.1
Host: api.upcloud.com
User-Agent: Paw/3.1.7 (Macintosh; OS X/10.13.5) NSURLConnection/1452.23
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 100
Authorization: Basic ##############base64hash##############

{
  "storage": {
    "title": "Sunday 17th Latest backup , Working NGINX, PHP, MySQL w Tweaks"
  }
}

Output

HTTP/1.1 201 CREATED
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2018 06:17:35 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close
Content-Length: 487
Server: Apache

{
   "storage" : {
      "access" : "private",
      "created" : "2018-06-17T06:17:35Z",
      "license" : 0,
      "origin" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "progress" : "0",
      "servers" : {
         "server" : []
      },
      "size" : 50,
      "state" : "maintenance",
      "title" : "Sunday 17th Latest backup , Working NGINX, PHP, MySQL w Tweaks",
      "type" : "backup",
      "uuid" : "########-####-####-####-############",
      "zone" : "us-chi1"
   }
}

Success (UpCloud GUI)

Conclusion

UpCloud does have great API docs.

I can easily integrate this into bash scripts to manage my servers via API and a future Java app for managing servers.

Paw does give CURL output to allow me to copy working API’s for use in BASH 🙂

More to come

BASH Script to Deploy and configure a server on UpCloud via Initalization scripts (or manual) (1 week)
JAVA App to manage your server (3 months)

If you are signing up for UpCloud please consider using my referral code and get $25 credit for free.

Read my setup guide here.

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

I hope this guide helps someone.

Ask a question or recommend an article

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Revision History

V1.1 updated typo

v1.0 Initial Post.

How I upgraded from a standalone 1Password 6.x licence to 1Password (7+) cloud subscription on OSX

May 27, 2018 by Simon

This is how I upgraded from my standalone 1Password 6.x family licence to a 1Password 7 cloud subscription on OSX. I am not reviewing 1Password here.

This is NOT a paid endorsement, this is output from my legitimate quest from upgrading an old stand-alone family licence to a cloud subscription. I have been using 1Password for the past 5 years and have recommended it to everyone I know.

Always backup your data before updating (things can go wrong), good luck. At the time of writing 1Password 7 was not out of beta.

Why

I have a number of guides on moving away from CPanel, Setting up VM’s on UpCloud, AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean and let’s say 1Password has helped me store everything from service invoices, SSH password service passwords etc. I did have a stroke last year (caused by the flu (a cough) and luckily all is OK ) and I now realise that having everything out of my brain and in a secure vault is a good idea (touch wood).

Reasons why I use 1Password – Password Manager.

It is a good idea to use a password manager.
It has allowed me to have a different password on every site I use.
I managed to stop using my old “same” password on every site I used since the 1990’s.
I am paranoid (check out https://howsecureismypassword.net/, https://haveibeenpwned.com/ and google “sites hacked” or “passwords exposed”).
It’s a good idea.

1Password 7 News

1Password 7 has been hitting my twitter timeline, should I upgrade? Here is the official upgrade guide.

Security Researcher Troy Hunt’s – https://haveibeenpwned.com/ is now a feature in 1Password 7

@1Password just keeps getting better and better. Ping: @troyhunt pic.twitter.com/qTtE6XyoXb
— Grant Harrington (@harringg) May 22, 2018

I wrote a PHP implementation to check a password exposure level with Troy Hunt’s pwned passwords API and know it’s a good idea.

Also, there are loads of great features in 1Password 7.

Anything that can help create secure passwords is a good idea.

86% of Passwords are Terrible (and Other Statistics) https://t.co/pSqbb7IV0g by @troyhunt
— Particular Software (@ParticularSW) May 25, 2018

1Password Twitter Support Shoutout

Before I begin I would like to acknowledge the patient 1Password support team on twitter. They answered well over 20 questions from me and handled my frustrations of there not being a clear standalone family licence, I suspected a plot to force people onto a cloud subscription at first.

In an ideal world upgrading, 1Password should be an easy process (1Password Twitter Support indicated)

Load’s of 1 Password activity on Twitter

Phew! ? 1Password 7 for Mac has generated a lot of excitement! If you have any questions, be sure to check out our forums to see if they’ve been answered. Our team is always here. https://t.co/Xixe8e80yY
— 1Password (@1Password) May 23, 2018

Before I downloaded the latest 1Password 7 I fired heaps of questions at the twitter support. I hope 1Password give them a raise or bonus.

I did spend way too long reading past the negative 1Password support posts on “where is the standalone licence”, “beta discounts are gone”, “why so expensive” and “how can I upgrade from 1password 6 and still use dropbox” etc.

I ended up logging a support ticket (looking for the unicorn beta tester discount/stand-alone licence, I think I was too late to join the beta program).

I backed up my 1Password 6 data

Always take backups of your data before upgrading anything.

Open your existing 1Password 6

Click File, Export, All Items

Choose a File Name and press Save

Verify Data (open Finder)

I also backed up the 1Password file in Dropbox before upgrading. Simply drag it to your desktop.

I visited https://1password.com/extlink/signin/ and…

Signed in (create an account if you don’t have one), I had one from a previous support ticket I logged.
I chose “Individual” account type.
Specified my Email Address
Verified My Email

Then I..

Added my Name
Skipped the Credit card option (to activate the trial)
Generated a master key (this is combined with your password)
Created a new password for a new password vault
Logged in
Saved my Emergency Recover PWF (with details)

I did have a peek at the 1Password SSL certificate strength and other tools and they came up all good (I don’t want to use an insecure service).

You too can test SSL on sites with https://dev.ssllabs.com/ssltest/

The only concern I have is TLS 1.3 is not an option yet. I use it on my blog’s web server (guide here) also a few SSL labs identified weak cyphers are presented as available from the server (Is this an issue)?

I also had a look at Google Chrome’s developer console to see if anything out of the ordinary was popping up? The console appears a little chatty? TLS 1.2 was in force securing the client/server communications so that’s nice.

Now that I am logged into my cloud 1Password (trial) account I can…

Add/View/Edit/Delete items in my vault.
Download desktop/mobile apps.
Import data to vaults.
Turn on Two Factor authentication.
Create/Edit/Delete a password vault (or set as default).
Update billing details (if you wish to subscribe)
Contact Support

Now I can connect my new 1Password cloud account to my local 1Password 6 installation by.

Open 1 Password (on my Mac)
Open the Preferences and go to the Account tab
Click on Scan the account details
Move the scan window over a QR Code (Setup Code) in a logged in 1password.com screen (login detail like login server, master key and username are auto-entered).
Enter my vault password.

Now I am prompted to import my local 1Password data into the cloud account from my local 1Password.

When the import completed I was prompted to delete the local vault (I said yes because I backed it up).

Tip: 1Password 6 on my Mac did not appear to delete the Dropbox data so I deleted this manually.

After a few minutes, I noticed Dropbox was still syncing files?

Troubleshooting: I had to set my new cloud vault as the primary vault to save to and not the old vault that was syncing via Dropbox. I also deleted all links to Dropbox on iOS and Android devices.

I did notice that 1Password was 6.8.9 (I thought 1password 7 was the latest?, I did try the update button). I ended up ticking “Include beta builds” and then 1Password 7.0 is a download option (maybe this will change in the next few days)?

I opened 1Password 7 on my local desktop.

I had a quick look around in 1Password 7 for the https://haveibeenpwned.com/ feature. I opened an existing account I added to 1Password. It look’s nice.

Some nice alerts and features I noticed when viewing my data in 1 Password 7.

Aside: I had to opt into beta builds on Windows to get 1Password 7 too.

Summary

When I set out and wanted a stand-alone licence but it appears I would need to pay for a licence on Windows and Mac and portable devices.

I overlooked an earlier DM from 1Password (that provided the purchase links) so I decided to go with a subscription (I think I missed the BETA program too, no reply from the hockey app email when opting into beta on Windows).

Buy standalone licences

Buy Mac Licence ($39 in BETA or $64.99 RRP)
Buy Windows Licence ($39 in BETA or $64.99 RRP)

From what I could see standalone licences only work via Dropbox (or locally) and not via the 1Password cloud.

However, the subscription does away with the requirement to buy multiple licences (all apps are free once you subscribe). I am not sure when 1Password 8 is coming out so I think it is wiser to go with a yearly subscription (that’s about 10.8c a day in Australian peso’s).

Time to Subscribe

I pulled the trigger and subscribed 🙂

One nice thing is the trial time is added on to the subscription length so if you have 30 days left in the trial it add’s on to the yearly subscription length (13 months), that’s nice.

Update: June 2019

1Password now allow you to setup 2FA (authenticator app or YuiKey leys (or both)) authentication on your 1Password login. Read the official post here.

Goto https://my.1password.com/profile/2fa to setup 2FA.

You can setup 2FA (authapp and or hardware keys)

You will be notified by email if a 2FA method is setup.

You will need to sign out and back into your apps web, Desktop and Mobile).

Web Signin

You will need to insert and press your hardwre key.

And enter your 2FA code

Mobile app login

I used my YubiCo Authentocator app to get the temporary OTP.

You can remove previous logged in devices from accessing your data or force them to reqire 2FA at next login

Nice

Conclusion

Happy = Yes (they are shooting fish in a barrel)

Could have been easier to upgrade from 1 password = Yes

I hope this guide helps someone.

Find out more about 1Password at http://1password.com/

Ask a question or recommend an article

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Revision History

v1.4 Added 2fA Info

v1.3 Fixed typo in the title/url.

v1.2 Added Links

v1.1 Added Conclusion

v1.0 Initial post

How to backup WordPress on a host that has CPanel

April 29, 2018 by Simon

This is a simple guide that demonstrates how you can log in to a host that offers the CPanel tools to backup all of your website files (and databases). Backing up your website should be done often and especially before you migrate to any another website host. I used to change hosts every few years (they don’t own your site, you do).

I have a number of guides on moving away from CPanel, setting up VM’s on UpCloud, AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean along with installing and managing WordPress from the command line copying files to a server via command line editing remote files locally etc but how do you manage a website with CPanel?

You can normal login to CPanel tools on a shared host by loading www.yourdomainnam.com/cpanel (failing that login to your domain hosts web GUI and find your CPanel interface there).

Step 1: Login to your Host

Step 2: Find your CPanel Interface

Hosts are a bit different but in this case, I just click my domain to find the CPanel link.

I found it, I clicked the CPanel login.

Step 3: CPanel Applications

CPanel does offer good tools to manage your websites like web-based File Manager and Database tool called phpMyAdmin.

Aside: CPanel/Hosts Downsides

The thing I don’t like about hosts that offer CPanel is they usually limit delivery of your website to extract more money. Nothing worse than receiving Resource Limit Is Reached errors.

Also shared hosts usually lag way behind in newer software versions like PHP and MySQL (this is a security concern).

TIP: You can scan your site for vulnerabilities using Qualsys Freescan, Zap or Kali Linux.

Here is a security scan of a shared host (with CPanel) that I was using in 1999. Note the high vulnerabilities and old version of Linux.

Also, a shared host will often overcharge you (e.g $150 a year) for a poorly configured SSL certificate.

This was an SSL cert I paid $150 a year for (evaluated with SSL Labs SSL Test) on a shared host with CPanel.

Aside: Self Managed Upsides

After I moved my domain to a self-managed virtual machine I migrated WordPress, set up a free SSL certificate, sped up my site with a CDN, setup Cloudflare, setup better TLS security etc

When you manage your own server you can install a free SSL certificate in under 1 minute.

Below is my SSL certificate. A strong SSL certificate will increase search engine traffic

Aside: Compare Shared host speed v Self Managed

FYI: https://gtmetrix.com/ is a great site for measuring the speed of a website (shared of self-managed). I found great speed improvements after moving away from a host offering CPanel, tweaking the server and setting up cloudflare. A self-managed server will allow you to tweak anything you want.

GTMetrix results:

I like how self-managed servers allow you to scale the server’s resources yourself, move servers or add storage etc.

Aside: SSL Certificate

If you have an SSL cert you should test it often as vulnerabilities pop up from time to time.

FYI: All sites will soon require an SSL certificate to be sent traffic from search engines (no SSL = lower traffic).

SSL Test my site: https://dev.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=fearby.com&s=104.27.154.69

Now enough with the self-managed serve asides and back to how to backup your website with CPanel tools.

Step 4: Backup your web files in CPanel

Use the File Explorer app in CPanel

Highlight all files that you want to backup (highlight everything but not past backup files).

View the files to compress summary

Click Compress Files(s) and view the backup progress

You can now download the backup zip file in your browser (click the file and click Download).

Download Progress.

Step 5: Backup your database in CPanel

Now we need to backup any MySQL database(s) that may be used by WordPress

Open the phpMyAdmin app in CPanel.

FYI: Alternatively, you can use a free tool called Adminer to backup and restore our database.

Click your WordPress database (on the left). You can identify your current WordPress database by opening the wp-config.php file.

The first step is to perform an online cold backup of the WordPress database.

Click the database you want to backup (on the left)
Click the Options tab
Under the Copy To frame enter a new database name to copy the database too
Click Go

Now you have an online cold spare that you can use just in case the original database corrupts itself. You can rename the database or configure WordPress to point to this new database if need be.

Now let’s download a copy of the database (Repeat for multiple databases).

Click the database you want to backup
Click the Export tab
Click Go

You should now have a backup of your website in a zip file and an export of your database in a .sql text file, SQL files can be re-imported to databases later.

TIP: Backup often.

I hope this guide helps someone.

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Revision History

v1.0 Initial post

How to install Windows 10 Pro alongside an OSX partition with Apple Boot Camp

April 20, 2018 by Simon

This guide will show you how to install Windows 10 Pro alongside an OSX partition with Apple Boot Camp.

I have a number of guides on moving away from CPanel, Setting up VM’s on UpCloud, AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean along with installing and managing WordPress from the command line. I use OSX to develop and occasionally need to use Windows to achieve some development tasks, this is how you can install Windows on an Apple PC.

Apple Boot Camp

Apple Bootcamp software can be found here: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201468

Bootcamp Steps.

You can download a Windows 10 ISO here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10

You will need to plug in a 16GB or larger USB key to use as an install medium.

Download Boot Camp

Download AppBoot Camp here: https://support.apple.com/en-au/boot-camp

Start Apple Boot Camp, click Continue, Tick all options, select the Windows 10 ISO file (beware Bootcamp will select the first ISO file it finds, ensure your USB is selected, Click Continue (tip: You may need to er format and prepare the USB key 10 times, Apple Bootcamp is not the most reliable program), It may take 6 hours to copy files pre Window Setup).

Choose your Windows partition size (at least 200GB is ideas)

When the Bootcamp Wizard is complete you can reboot into Windows (automatic at the end of the wizard)

Enter the desired details in each step (e.g Local, Windows Key, Windows Version, Partition and Country etc)

Loads more steps like Keyboard Layout, Domain, Microsoft Account, Password and Cortana and Privacy etc.

Windows is now installed, Apple Bootcamp will set up appropriate drivers for your Mac,

While this is happening I will install Google Chrome Canary.

Bootcamp has now finished setting up drivers.

Windows 10 Start menu (I prefer OSX’s simplicity)

You can set up your prefered Startup disk in the Apple System Preferences or press the Option key on startup and choose a partition to boot.

Update: Open a Windows 10 Boot Camp Installation on OSX in Parallels (like a VM)

Read this guide will show you how you can open a Windows 10 Boot Camp Installation on OSX in Parallels (like a VM).

I hope this guide helps someone.

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Revision History

v1.1 Added Open Bootcams as VM

v1.0 Initial post

Moving an Ubuntu 16.04 VM on Vultr from one data centre to another via snapshots

April 17, 2018 by Simon

This guide will show how you can move an Ubuntu VM server domain between Vultr data centres via snapshots.

I have a number of guides on moving away from CPanel, Setting up VM’s on AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean along with installing and managing WordPress from the command line. Sometimes you need to move a sever between locations and/or upgrade the server (to have more memory t install WordPress).

Moving an existing Vultr server

If you don’t have an Ubuntu server click here (follow this guide).

Login to Vultr and specify a source server, click Snapshots and click Take Snapshot.

Wait for the snapshot to finish (It may take 1 hour).

Great, the snapshot is done.

Now I can create a new server (in a different data centre).

Deploy New Instance

Choose a location (Australia is at capacity, so I’ll deploy to Silicon Valley then move again in a few weeks), choose the snapshot to restore, choose a plan, I enabled IPV6/Auto Backups and Private Networking.

TIP: The password for the server will be the same as the source server so write it down.

Click Deploy Now

After a few minutes, you can see the new servers IP address, you can log in to your domain name provider (in my case Namecheap) and update the target IPV4 and IPV6 address.

You can find IPV4 and IPV6 addresses by opening your server, clicking settings then IPxV4 or IPV6.

You will need to update Vultr DNS settings (login to Vultr, Click Servers, Click DNS then edit your existing Domain DNS entry). Add you’re new serves IP addresses.

Update: I added an IPV6/AAAA record too.

Wait for DNS Replication

Goto https://www.whatsmydns.net/ and check the global DNS propagation for your new domain’s server.

If you are happy that the server has been migrated (snapshot restored) and that the domain DNS is pointing to your new server you can delete the old server in the Vultr server list.

Post-Migrate Actions

Setup Daily backups.
Review firewall settings (guide here).
Optional: Install MySQL
Optional: Install PHP
Optional: Install PHP Pooled Connections
Optional: Install WordPress
Optional: Install WordPress CDN
Optional: Configure Cloudflare
etc

I hope this guide helps someone.

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Revision History

v1.1 Vultr Link

v1.0 Initial post

Using Cloudflare DNS servers to speed up the internet and add privacy on OSX

April 2, 2018 by Simon

Below is how I setup my OSX to use Cloudflare’s new DNS servers to speed up internet browsing and add privacy on OSX

Cloudflare has launched a DNS service: https://blog.cloudflare.com/announcing-1111/

DNS Performance

You can view worldwide DNS performance by viewing https://www.dnsperf.com/#!dns-providers

I check the DNS at my router, I am using ISP provided DNS servers.

Cloudflare DNS

On April Fools 2018 Cloudflare Released a DNS server service.

Snip from here: “DNS: Internet’s Directory Nearly everything on the Internet starts with a DNS request. DNS is the Internet’s directory. Click on a link, open an app, send an email and the first thing your device does is ask the directory: Where can I find this? Unfortunately, by default, DNS is usually slow and insecure. Your ISP, and anyone else listening in on the Internet, can see every site you visit and every app you use — even if their content is encrypted. Creepily, some DNS providers sell data about your Internet activity or use it target you with ads.”

https://1.1.1.1/

Set Cloudflare Nameservers using OSX

Open the Apple System Preferences, click Network, click on your Network (Wifi or ethernet), Click Advanced then DNS and add 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1

Alternatively, you can manually set your DNS servers in OSX by editing the /etc/resolv.conf, by default SX will inherit DNS settings from our router.

cat /etc/resolv.conf
#
# macOS Notice
#
# This file is not consulted for DNS hostname resolution, address
# resolution, or the DNS query routing mechanism used by most
# processes on this system.
#
# To view the DNS configuration used by this system, use:
#   scutil --dns
#
# SEE ALSO
#   dns-sd(1), scutil(8)
#
# This file is automatically generated.
#
domain home
nameserver 1.1.1.1
nameserver 1.0.0.1

Troubleshooting: Clear DNS Cache

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Debug DNS Data

scutil --dns
DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : home
  nameserver[0] : 1.1.1.1
  nameserver[1] : 1.0.0.1
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000002 (Reachable)

resolver #2
  domain   : local
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300000

resolver #3
  domain   : 254.169.in-addr.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300200

resolver #4
  domain   : 8.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300400

resolver #5
  domain   : 9.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300600

resolver #6
  domain   : a.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300800

resolver #7
  domain   : b.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 301000

DNS configuration (for scoped queries)

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : home
  nameserver[0] : 1.1.1.1
  nameserver[1] : 1.0.0.1
  if_index : 7 (en0)
  flags    : Scoped, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000002 (Reachable)

Confirm Cloudflare DNS from the OSX Comand line

nslookup www.fearby.com
Server:		1.1.1.1
Address:	1.1.1.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:	www.fearby.com
Address: 104.27.154.69
Name:	www.fearby.com
Address: 104.27.155.69

Privacy

I am not sure if Cloudflare is any more private than using ISP DNS but I’ll happily use it.

Several people have asked me about Cloudflare’s new 1.1.1.1 privacy DNS service. To be clear: it DOES NOT stop your ISPs from collecting your browsing history. ISPs can still see the sites you’re connecting to — even if the site is over HTTPS. You will still send a hostname.
— Zack Whittaker (@zackwhittaker) April 2, 2018

Speed

I can’t tell if DNS is faster, I did ping my ISP DNS before switching and it was about the same (sub 25ms), time will tell.

Conclusion

I have used https://www.opendns.com/ before and loved the dashboards, I hope Cloudflare add dashboard options too.

I hope this guide helps someone.

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v1.0 Initial post

How to purchase your own domain name and set up a web server from $5 a month

March 28, 2018 by Simon

This guide will show technically minded people how you can purchase your own domain name, set up a web server on Vultr with an online store using WordPress/WooCommerce from $5 a month. Warning this post is technical (if you have never used SSH, Ubuntu, Linux Command Line, hate risk or are not patient then this is NOT the guide you are after).

Draft Post (released early to share)

I personally recommend (not a paid endorsement) the free WooCommerce plugin for the free WordPress.org CMS on the free Ubuntu Operating system with the free NGINX web server and the free MYSQL database engine and free SSL certificates from Lets Encrypt.

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).

Buy a domain name from Namecheap here.

Sorry for using the word free a lot but I like free things. One of the benefits of a using a self-managed server is you get the option to install free software and configure the server how you want and secure it how you want. Truth be told managed ho (e.g CPanel, etc) are in the business of making money via monthly feed, expensive SSL certificates, taxing your transactions or pushing you to higher priced tiers.

Legend:

Self Managed Server = A server that you create, you configure patch and support (all the reward and risk is owned by you and costs are low).
Hosted Server = A server you have partial control of and the hosts manage the server and support (You hand away all risk and most of the control and pay for support/features).

I moved to a self-managed server after I was paying $25/m for a poorly performing website and $150/y for a poor quality SSL certificate and a slice of a server that seemed to always say “Usage Limit Exceeded”. Why pay for an insecure website that my visitors could not view because the usage limit was exceeded.

fyi: Fearby.com costs me $10 a month for a server and $5/m for CDN abilities.

CPanel hosts are an option when you don’t want to self-manage a service and take on the hassle but be prepared for server limitations (The image below was taken on an older CPanel based hosts before I moved to a self-managed Vultr server)

I recently discovered a well known and established website hosting service (that I used to use) and a friend is still using is insecure. My friend’s site has a static website on it but the server underneath was very old and insecure. Having a secure web server should be at the top of your list with any self-managed or hosted website (this will help search engine optimization and prevent risks to your website visitors).

Sites like Virus Total, SSL Labs and Alexa Site Info , Qualys are good ways to review a site’s credibility.

fyi: The awesome https://seositecheckup.com/ is awesome for evaluating our sites SEO score.

Before we set up a server with WordPress on your own server let’s quickly look at the alternative commercial ready to go website builders.

Alternative (paid) DIY Website Builders

The following leading commercial sites will allow you to build a site online.

In my opinion, five things matter with setting up site online website.

Setup Costs, Monthly Cost and Commissions (what are the hidden charges)
Security (having a food SSL Certificate is key to having a good organic traffic from search engines)
Site Speed (Having a slow site will impact search engine optimization and drive visitors away)
Accessibility (if your site is not WCAG accessible it will not rank high on search engines).
Control (will you be able to do everything you want too, nothing worse than going so far and being limited)

Ok, let’s see how much it will cost to set up a simple business site on the sites above.

Wix

Setup: Goto https://www.wix.com/, Login to Wix, click Create Site, click Business, Click Choose a Template, Edit the page, Click Save, Click “Connect your own customized domain“, Click “Connect a domain you already own“.

I was redirected to a Wix plan pricing page where I need to choose a plan to continue. From what I researched you cant control HTML on Wix so can’t add a MailChimp newsletter signup form so you would have to go with the $24.5/m option to enable Email Campaigns.

I could not see information about included SSL certificates, SEO or other chargers. SSL is free after you pay right?

The Wix editor appears OK (it may take a bit of learning though).

I clicked publish and the site was live

A quick check of the SSL, Accessibility and SEO and no obvious deal breakers here apart from the price and platform lock-in.

I performed a security check on the site with https://freescan.qualys.com (passed)

Conclusion: I hear Wix templates are hard to change so choose your template wisely, A large collection of apps are available that you can add to the site.

Although Wix was nice and it does include a full-featured look at the engine it is not for me ($24/m USD is too expensive).

Squarespace

Squarespace basic websites cost $16/$25 a month or $34/52 for online stores: https://www.squarespace.com/pricing/

Setup a Squarespace website: Goto https://www.squarespace.com/, Click Start a Free Trial, Choose a Template, Create an Account (a quick read of the terms of service and privacy policy, #scary), SpareSpace sites are pre-published?

Loading the webpage on a non-logged-in (with SquareSpace login) browser displays a trial warning. Trial pages are essentially restricted (unlike Wix).

The mobile view does not match the template? I guess the chosen template is more of a vibe and not a template.

Setting up a Squarespace website may take some time. Squarespace does have some nifty advance options in a slide-out menu though.

Because the public view of the page is restricted I cannot scan it with WCAG accessibility tools. Scanning the site performance speeds with gtmetrix also fails.

Squarespace is well known to be difficult to set up a website when compared to other drag and drop editors (but Squarespace sites do look nice).

I am not paying $54/m for a website so let’s move on.

Shopify

Shopify Setup: Goto https://shopify.com and click Create, Sign up and enter your store name. Complete the wizard.

Choose a Shopify Plan

Scalping transactions, no thanks. let’s move on.

Weebly

Weebly Setup: Goto https://www.weebly.com/au and click Get Started under Create Store. Enter your account details and click Create Your Site, enter the name of the store, Click I’m just trying Weebly, click the type of product you will be selling.

Weebly Site Setup

Theme Selection

Choose a Domain

Publish the site

Clicking publish appears to be a dead end.

“Please contact Weebly Support to verify your account”, No Thanks, let’s move on.

One candidate remains and that is WordPress hosted (wordpress.com not wordpress.org).

WordPress.com

WordPress.com offer hosted plans for WordPress in the cloud.

Setup a WordPress site, the only one that removes WordPress branding and allows third-party plugins to be installed it the Business plans for $33 a month.

Setup Basics

Choose a WordPress theme.

Assign a Domain

In order to buy a domain, you need to log in (top right) with an account

My working WordPress account (is no longer working), it was in my password manager.

I seem to be stuck in a signup loop

Time to move on. Time to set up my own server on Vultr and setup WordPress and WooCommerce,

But, before we do, let’s ensure our name is secure online.

Search for your Name/Brand

Do search for your website (or thing) in search engines to see if your name is already taken, don’t buy a domain that is owned or has IP or trademark presence. It is a good idea to use sites like https://namechk.com/ to see if your site or social media is already taken.

namechk.com will allow you to search for name availability online. The name “mything” is not fully available online.

You will want to see all green squares (name available) below before buying a domain name. This looks better.

I would recommend you create your social media accounts before or right after buying your domain. Sites like Twitter will insist on short usernames names so get your social media sites first.

Trademark and Brand Search

Also, perform a trademark and IP search.

Australian Trademark Search: https://search.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search/quick

United States Trademark Database: https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-application-process/search-trademark-database

Global brand Search: http://www.wipo.int/branddb/en/

etc

Self Managed Warning

I tend to go the “self-managed server route” and install the free WordPress CMS because:

I can.
I am tight.
I like having full control (usually the best features for online web hosts are hidden behind subscriber tiers, you can install and do whatever you want on your own server like build API’s, distributed MySQL servers, install MongoDB or Redis , use up to date PHP etc).
I have been stung by CPanel hosts charging $150/y for a crappy SSL certificate (You can set up your own SSL certificate for $0 and set up super secure SSL rules).
I can manage WordPress via the command line
I can upgrade the server and restore it whenever I want.
I can manage my own server performance (e.g setup PHP child workers) or install a Content Delivery Network.
I can direct domain email to google G Suite, see pricing here.
etc.

There are many reasons why you would not want to “self-manage” your own server

Technical Requirements (and time to support).
Higher Risk.
Applying Updates and Patches.
etc.

Being technically minded and choosing a “self-managed web servers” can take away time from the fun stuff like SEO, Site Design, customer needs, branding etc.

Self Managed Costs

For $5 a month you can buy a server with enough memory to install WordPress (cheaper if you don’t need WordPress)

Vultr is great. Vultr does have ready to go servers that you can deploy that have WordPress all set up.

The Vultr template above does use the Centos OS (read my guide setting up Centos on a different service provider here) but I prefer to manually setup a server with Ubuntu 16.04 OS on Vultr.

Wih a $5 server you can do what you want with it. I have blogged before about setting up your own Server. e.g Installing Centos and Ubuntu server on Digital Ocean. Digital Ocean does not have data centres in Australia and this kills scalability. AWS is good but 4x the price of Vultr. I have blogged about setting up and AWS server here (and upgrading an AWS instance). I tried to check out Alibaba Cloud but the verification process was broken so I decided to check our Vultr.

Manual Setup of Vultr on an Ubuntu 16.04 server

Deploy a Vultr Server – Guide here ($2.5/m to New Jersey or Florida or $5/m to Sydney, I would recommend you opt in for the auto backup for $0.50c/m and $1/m respectively).
Setup NGINX.
Setup PHP and PHP-FPM (see guide above), consider adding PHP child workers.
Setup and secure MySQL (see guide above), create a database for WordPress to use.
Instal Adminder MySQL GUI (guide here).
Setup a free Lets Encrypt SSL certificate (guide here).
Install WordPress (and Jetpack plugin).
Install WordPress CLI.
Instal the WooCommerce Storefront WordPress Theme.
Install WooCommerce Plugin.
Secure Ubuntu.
Also consider linking your domain to Cloudflare to boost performance, scanning your site with Qualys Freescan and OWASP ZAP).
Consider setting up a WordPress image compressor and CDN plugin. like EWWW.io

Manual WooCommerce Plugin Setup

Once you setup Woocommerce you can setup the store defaults. Goto the WordPress dashboard and click WooCommerce Settings

Settings – General

Set Address, City and State and Postcode
Set allowed countries to sell in (e.g Australia)
Set allowed countries to ship items to (e.g Australia)
Set Enable Taxes
Set Currency
etc

Settings – Products

Set Weight
Set Dimensions
Enable Product Reviews
Enable Star Ratings on Reviews
etc

Settings – Shipping

Enable Shipping Calculator
Add Shipping Classes
Shipping Zones
etc.

Settings – Checkout

Force Secure Checkup
Create a Terms and Conditions page (and set).
etc

Settings – Account

Set Account Options
etc

Settings – Emails

Set Email Preferences
Set Email Header Image
Set Email Colour
Set Footer Text
etc

Settings – API

API can be disabled if you don’t need it.

Optional Actions

Setup Yoast Plugin
Setup other plugins

Instaling a Woo Commerce Child Theme

Goto https://woocommerce.com/product-category/themes/storefront-child-theme-themes/ and choose a theme.

Purchase and Install the desired child theme (I uploaded it to my /wp-content/themes/ folder with forklift). I chose a free deli theme.

Goto your WordPress then themes folder and activate your new child theme.

Post Site Setup

Just because your site is live does not mean you can rest.

SEO Optimization

Do use sites like https://seositecheckup.com/ and follow recommended actions to improve your SEO like updating meta tags.

More Reading

Attaching an email to your domain

You can pay $5 a month and link a G Suite email to your domain.

Dedicated professional Google G Suite email account for $5 a month with 30GB storage (If you don’t want ot to buy a G Suite email and link it to your domain then you don’t need this).

Once you have a G Suite account you can link other domains (and domain emails) to it. You can login to your G Suite emails via G Mail and send emails from apps or the command line.

Why Vultr

I use the server host Vultr as they have data centres all around the world and the support of great, Digital Ocean is good too but they don’t have data centres in my country (Australia). Vultr allows you to deploy all over the world upgrade servers, move servers, add storage and restore servers.

Alternatively, you can buy a $2.5/m server and generate a static website

I use the Platforma Web HTML generator to build mobile and WCAG compliant websites.

Buying a domain, I buy my domains from https://www.namecheap.com/ it is a good idea to look for coupons first at https://www.namecheap.com/promos/coupons.aspx before buying a domain.

Once you buy a domain you can point it to a Vultr server and upload your website.

I hope this helps someone.

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Revision History

v.1.2 WordPress WooCommerce

v1.1 SEO

v1.0 Initial Draft

Using the Qualys FreeScan Scanner to test your website for online vulnerabilities

March 23, 2018 by Simon

It is possible to deploy a server in minutes to hours but it can take days to secure. What tools can you use to help identify what to secure on your website?

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, installing a Free SSL certificate and setting up SSL security.

Security Tools

https://asafaweb.com/ is a good tool for quick scanning
Kali Linux has a number of security tools you can use.
You can run a system audit Lynis Audit.
Checking your site for vulnerabilities with Zap.
Run a Gravity Scan malware and supply chain scan
Use Qualys SSL scan to test your SSL certificate: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/

Qualys SSL Labs SSL Tester is the best tool for checking an SSL certificate strength

Most people don’t know Qualys also has another free (limited to 10 scans) vulnerability scanner for websites.

Goto https://freescan.qualys.com/ and click Start your free account.

Complete the signup form

Now check your email to login and confirm your email account

Login now from the email.

Create a password (why the 25 char max Qualys?)

Enter your website URL and click Scan

The scan can take hours

While the scan was being performed I noticed that Qualys offers alerts (I’ll check this out later): https://www.qualys.com/research/security-alerts/

Yes, the scan can take hours, take a walk or read other posts here.

The scan is almost complete

Yay, my latest scan revealed 0 High, 0 Medium and 0 Low-risk vulnerabilities.

It did report 23 informational alerts like “Firewall Detected“.

Threat Report Results

Patch Report Results

This report was empty (probably because I don’t run Windows)

Threat Report Results

The OWASP report contained partial scan results (maybe the full report is available to pro users)

Previous Scan Results

The Qualys dashboard will show all past scans.

My first scan showed a Low priority issue with the /wp-login.php page as the input fields did not have “autocomplete=”off””, I fixed this by adding “autocomplete=”off”” the removing the page (safer).

The second scan found two issues with cookies (possibly ad banner cookies) and 2 subfolders that I created in past development exercises. I deleted the two sub-folders that were not needed.

The third scan was clean.

Here is a scan of a static website of a friends server (static can be less secure if the server underneath is old or unpatched).

Happy scanning. I hope this guide helps someone.

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Revision History

v1.1 Static Web Server Scan

v1.0 Initial post

Using OWASP ZAP GUI to scan your Applications for security issues

March 17, 2018 by Simon

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.

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 Options

Download contents

Copy to the app to the OSX Application folder

App Installed

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

OWASP Zap is now Installed

Ready for a Scan

But before we do let’s check out the Options

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

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

Click Update All to Update addons

I clicked Update All

Installed some plugins

Zap is Ready

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

First Scan (https failed)

I enabled unsafe SSL/TLS Renegotiation.

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

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

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.

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

Generating a Report

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

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

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