In the process of using Hong Kong cloud servers to build websites, applications or node services, many people will encounter such a headache: the server memory usage is abnormally high, the system is slow to respond, and even crashes and restarts frequently. Memory problems will not only lead to performance degradation, but may also affect business stability and increase maintenance costs. Especially for Hong Kong server users with large traffic fluctuations and diversified applications, memory optimization is a must.

To optimize the problem of high memory usage of Hong Kong cloud servers, you must first understand the essence of the problem. Common reasons are as follows

1. Application memory leak. Some applications or scripts fail to release memory in time during operation, resulting in continuous memory accumulation.

2. Unreasonable cache settings. The default cache settings of web servers and databases are too high, occupying a lot of memory.

3. System service redundancy. A large number of useless services are automatically started at startup, occupying resources for a long time.

4. High concurrent load. The surge in website visits and the number of connections have led to a rapid increase in memory consumption.

5. Memory swap is not enabled. The swap area configuration is missing, and the system cannot switch smoothly when the memory is exhausted, and it crashes or kills the process directly.

System-level memory optimization method: System-level optimization is the basis

1. Turn off useless services and processes

Use the command to quickly check and disable unnecessary system services:

systemctl list-unit-files --type=service
systemctl stop Service Name
systemctl disable Service Name

For example, to shut down an unneeded mail server:

systemctl stop postfix
systemctl disable postfix

Effect: Release more than 20% of the system's resident memory.

2. Configure a reasonable Swap partition

Hong Kong cloud servers are often initially configured without Swap, which can be added manually:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1G count=2
chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile
swapon /swapfile

echo '/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0' >> /etc/fstab

Recommendation: It is recommended to set the swap size to 1-2 times the physical memory.

3. Adjust kernel cache parameters

Edit /etc/sysctl.conf and add:

vm.swappiness=10
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

vm.swappiness controls the kernel to prioritize physical memory and reduce the frequency of swap usage.

vm.vfs_cache_pressure adjusts the inode/dentry cache recycling mechanism to avoid occupying too much memory.

Application configuration:

sysctl -p

Application layer memory optimization method:

In many cases, it is not the system that occupies the most memory, but the upper-layer application.

1. Web server (Nginx/Apache) optimization

Nginx optimization example:

Adjust the number of working processes:

worker_processes auto;
worker_connections 10240;

Enable gzip compression to reduce transmission pressure:

gzip on;
gzip_types text/plain application/json text/css application/javascript;

Apache optimization example:

Reduce the MaxRequestWorkers value to avoid excessive concurrency and memory usage.

MaxRequestWorkers 150

2. Database (MySQL/MariaDB) memory optimization

Adjust the buffer pool (InnoDB Buffer Pool)

Modify /etc/my.cnf or /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf:

innodb_buffer_pool_size=512M
innodb_log_buffer_size=64M
query_cache_size=32M

Recommendation: innodb_buffer_pool_size is generally set to 60%-70% of physical memory.

3. PHP environment optimization (such as LNMP/LAMP)

Enable opcache cache to improve PHP execution efficiency and reduce memory usage.

Configure php.ini:

[opcache]
opcache.enable=1
opcache.memory_consumption=128
opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000

Limit the number of php-fpm child processes:

pm.max_children = 30
pm.start_servers = 5
pm.min_spare_servers = 5
pm.max_spare_servers = 10

Avoid excessive number of child processes causing memory overflow.

4. Memory optimization for applications such as Node.js/Java

Add garbage collection parameters to Node.js:

node --max-old-space-size=512 app.js

Java application optimization JVM parameters:

-Xms512m -Xmx1024m

Control the maximum memory usage of the application to prevent unlimited expansion.

Optimization tips specifically for Hong Kong cloud servers

Servers in Hong Kong usually need to deal with the characteristics of frequent overseas visits and frequent network fluctuations, so there are some additional optimization suggestions: it is recommended to use a load balancer to divert traffic during peak traffic, it is recommended to configure CDN node acceleration for slow cross-border access, and it is recommended to optimize TCP parameters to shorten the timeout time for large network jitters.

Stability is the strongest competitiveness of Hong Kong cloud servers. Memory is the lifeblood of the server, especially in a resource-sensitive and traffic-intensive environment like Hong Kong cloud servers, reasonable optimization is crucial. By shutting down useless services, increasing swap, optimizing application configuration, and real-time monitoring and management, you can not only solve the problem of excessive memory usage, but also greatly improve server stability and response speed, so that your business can run steadily and quickly.