Even if you aren't "on a budget," it's always a good idea to spend some time benchmarking and tuning your setup. You never know if you'll receive a spike of tra

Even if you aren't "on a budget," it's always a good idea to spend some time benchmarking and tuning your setup. You never know if you'll receive a spike of traffic or what the limits of your setup are. Most of the time, between the OS, Web Server, Application Stack, and Database, there are a few knobs that can be adjusted with minimal effort that will yield big gains in headroom. The author's suggestion of Munin is a great first step is a nice way to keep from getting caught with your pants down, and can usually be installed and configured in a few minutes. This is sort of the systems side of always making sure HTTP compression is working, minifying your JavaScript, crushing your PNGs, and keeping an eye on the aggregate size of web pages. Even if it loads fast for YOU, someone might be on a slow DSL line (or, gasp, DIALUP) or a mobile connection.