Guides from the NOC

Site crawling or throwing 502s under traffic? Learn how to calculate pm.max_children and pick dynamic vs ondemand vs static PHP-FPM on your VPS.

The connection opened and closed with nothing in it. That points at a backend that never replied, and there is one log line that names the cause exactly.

The connection opened, the request went out, and the server closed it without sending a response. Here is how to find out which layer hung up, and why.

Skip the extra Varnish daemon. Set up Nginx's built-in FastCGI cache to speed up PHP-FPM sites on your VPS, with safe rules for logged-in users and carts.

Planning a WooCommerce flash sale? Use this hosting checklist to prep caching, database connections, PHP-FPM, CDN, and webhooks before the traffic hits.

Learn how to load test your VPS with ab, wrk, and k6 before a launch or sale, and fix the PHP-FPM, MySQL, and Nginx limits that cause it to fall over.

WooCommerce import or database restore stalling with 'maximum execution time exceeded'? Learn which of four timeout layers is really at fault and how to fix it.

Install Memcached on your VPS, wire it into PHP sessions, and fix Connection Refused and Class Memcached Not Found errors while keeping port 11211 secure.

Step-by-step guide to installing Nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL/MariaDB and a free SSL cert on a bare Ubuntu VPS, plus the errors people hit along the way.

VPS throwing 'Too many open files' errors in Nginx, MySQL, or PHP-FPM? Learn how Linux file descriptor limits work and how to raise them safely.

Edited a PHP file but the site still shows the old version? Learn how PHP OPcache caches compiled code, why it goes stale, and how to clear it safely.

Site throwing Cloudflare error 524 'A timeout occurred'? Learn why the origin is too slow to respond and how to fix wp-cron, slow queries, and hung APIs.

Seeing a 504 Gateway Timeout on your site or API? Learn which layer - Cloudflare, Nginx, Apache, or PHP-FPM - is stalling, and fix each cause step by step.

Seeing a 502 Bad Gateway error on your site? Learn what's really failing behind the scenes - PHP-FPM, LiteSpeed, Cloudflare - and fix it step by step.

Site showing 503 Service Unavailable? Learn what's really crashing behind the scenes - PHP-FPM, Apache limits, plugins - and fix it step by step.

Getting 'Resource Limit Is Reached' or a 508 error in cPanel? Learn how CloudLinux LVE limits work, which one you're hitting, and how to fix it fast.

VPS randomly killing MySQL or PHP-FPM? Learn how to confirm an OOM kill, add swap space fast, and right-size PHP-FPM and MySQL so it stops recurring.

Getting MySQL error 1040 Too Many Connections on your WordPress site or VPS? Learn how to diagnose the real cause and fix it safely, step by step.

VPS running slow or unresponsive? Learn how to find the process eating your CPU - PHP-FPM, MySQL, cron, or a bad bot - and fix it for good.