Linux server setup, analysis and troubleshooting

A server that stops doing what it should rarely takes down just one thing: your website, your webshop, your email and your applications usually run on the same environment. Sometimes the cause is a configuration that no longer fits after an update, sometimes a disk that has filled up, and sometimes it turns out someone else has had access.

Secrotec sets up Linux servers, investigates what is going wrong and fixes it. That may be a new server that needs configuring, a fault whose cause is still unclear, or an environment that has been broken into. We work by the hour: €110 per hour, excl. VAT. How much time something takes depends on what we find — and we tell you before we go any further.

We do not provide hosting ourselves. If your environment runs with a hosting provider or on your own VPS, we work on it there; whatever is needed technically, we do.

Setting up a server

A new server or VPS is only usable once the parts fit together properly. We configure that environment and make sure the setup is right before anything goes live.

• Installing and configuring Linux — base installation, users, access and update policy.
• Web server — Apache or Nginx, virtual hosts, compression and caching.
• PHP and PHP-FPM — version choice, pools, memory and execution limits.
• Database — MySQL or MariaDB, user privileges, character sets and backup configuration.
• SSL, DNS and domain routing — certificates and automatic renewal that actually works.
• Cron jobs, file permissions and backups — tasks that run, permissions that are right, restores that have been tested.
• Migration — moving to another server, with a test window before DNS is switched over.

Something is not working — investigating faults

With a fault, the error message is rarely the cause. We work out where it actually goes wrong, rather than removing a symptom that returns tomorrow.

• Website unreachable while the server is running — virtual host, DNS, certificate or proxy.
• 500, 502 and 504 — three different stories: an error in the application itself, a backend refusing the connection, or a backend taking too long. The access log often says more than the error log.
• White screen after a PHP update — usually a fatal error that is not displayed; it is in the log.
• Database will not start or keeps stalling — ‘too many connections’ is a symptom, not a cause, and a full disk often shows up first as a database error.
• Permission denied, disk full, cron not running — permissions, ownership, inodes and tasks failing silently.
• SSH — connection refused, a key that no longer works, or a firewall locking you out.

Technical analysis and reporting

You can also bring us in when the cause is still unknown. The investigation is then the job in itself: we read the logs, reconstruct what happened and record what we find.

An investigation produces the findings, the cause as far as it can be established, the risks that follow from it and concrete next steps — as an explanation or as a written report. You then decide whether we carry out the remediation or you handle it yourself.

Not every fault can be explained. If log files have been rotated or wiped, the server has already been reinstalled, or a backup has been restored over it, some questions can no longer be answered. We say so, rather than constructing a cause the data does not support.

Your server or VPS has been compromised

When a breach is suspected, what you do not do matters most. Overwriting, reinstalling or restoring a backup erases exactly the traces needed to establish when it started.

What usually gives it away: spam being sent from the server or a blacklisting, unfamiliar processes with high usage, cron jobs you did not create, SSH logins from addresses you do not recognise, files with a recent modification date you cannot explain, or a website that becomes reinfected after being cleaned.

What we investigate: the authentication log and the access log side by side, running processes and the user they run as, cron jobs for all users and not just the crontab, accounts and SSH keys, file permissions and ownership, web shells and backdoors, outbound traffic, and the moment of first unfamiliar access.

Why reinstalling is not always the answer: a clean reinstall does not help if the backup was already infected or the vulnerability sits in the application. That first unfamiliar login determines which backup is still usable; without it, reinstalling is guesswork.

Recovery is followed by hardening: closing the gap that made the breach possible, replacing permissions and keys, and limiting access to what is genuinely needed. If it concerns an infection of a website or hosting account rather than the server itself, that usually starts with a technical malware and hosting check.

What it costs

€110 per hour, excl. VAT. Technical server work is charged by the hour, because the scope only becomes clear from what we find or from what needs to be set up. You get an estimate before we go any further, and if the work runs on we tell you in advance and explain why. There is no subscription and no minimum commitment.

How it works

You report the problem or the job. We look at the environment and carry out technical investigation. You receive the findings, an explanation and the next steps. You then decide whether we carry them out. We need your cooperation for access to the server or hosting account; the more complete the access and the logs, the more can be established.

What we do not promise

We do not guarantee a repair time, uptime or a fixed response time, and we do not offer 24/7 staffing — we work on business days between 09:00 and 17:00. We do not guarantee that an incident will never recur; what we do is record how it could happen and what closes the gap. And we do not provide hosting: we do the technical work on the environment you already have.

Hosting or server management — which do you need?

A hosting provider supplies the infrastructure: server capacity, network and usually a control panel. What happens inside it — how the web server is configured, which PHP version runs, whether permissions are right, what the logs say — often falls outside that.

If you do not have an environment yet, you need a hosting provider. If you have one and something is not working, something needs configuring, or you suspect a breach, that is technical work. That is what we do. If you are looking for managed hosting including updates and monitoring, see secure hosting.