sysctl.conf Optimization / Ubuntu 18.04

sysctl.conf

# Kernel sysctl configuration file for Linux
#
# Version 1.14 - 2019-04-05
# Michiel Klaver - IT Professional
# http://klaver.it/linux/ for the latest version - http://klaver.it/bsd/ for a BSD variant
#
# This file should be saved as /etc/sysctl.conf and can be activated using the command:
# sysctl -e -p /etc/sysctl.conf
#
# For binary values, 0 is disabled, 1 is enabled.  See sysctl(8) and sysctl.conf(5) for more details.
#
# Tested with: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS kernel version 3.13
#              Debian 7 kernel version 3.2
#              CentOS 7 kernel version 3.10

#
# Intended use for dedicated server systems at high-speed networks with loads of RAM and bandwidth available
# Optimised and tuned for high-performance web/ftp/mail/dns servers with high connection-rates
# DO NOT USE at busy networks or xDSL/Cable connections where packetloss can be expected
# ----------

# Credits:
# http://www.enigma.id.au/linux_tuning.txt
# http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1729
# http://fasterdata.es.net/TCP-tuning/linux.html
# http://fedorahosted.org/ktune/browser/sysctl.ktune
# http://www.cymru.com/Documents/ip-stack-tuning.html
# http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt
# http://www.frozentux.net/ipsysctl-tutorial/chunkyhtml/index.html
# http://knol.google.com/k/linux-performance-tuning-and-measurement
# http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-kernel-tuning-virtual-memory-subsystem/
# http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/REDP4285.html
# http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=121
# http://lartc.org/howto/lartc.kernel.obscure.html
# http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sysctl
# https://blog.cloudflare.com/http-2-prioritization-with-nginx/



###
### GENERAL SYSTEM SECURITY OPTIONS ###
###

# Controls the System Request debugging functionality of the kernel
kernel.sysrq = 0

# Controls whether core dumps will append the PID to the core filename.
# Useful for debugging multi-threaded applications.
kernel.core_uses_pid = 1

#Allow for more PIDs
kernel.pid_max = 65535

# The contents of /proc/<pid>/maps and smaps files are only visible to
# readers that are allowed to ptrace() the process
kernel.maps_protect = 1

#Enable ExecShield protection
kernel.exec-shield = 1
kernel.randomize_va_space = 2

# Controls the maximum size of a message, in bytes
kernel.msgmnb = 65535

# Controls the default maxmimum size of a mesage queue
kernel.msgmax = 65535

# Restrict core dumps
fs.suid_dumpable = 0

# Hide exposed kernel pointers
kernel.kptr_restrict = 1



###
### IMPROVE SYSTEM MEMORY MANAGEMENT ###
###

# Increase size of file handles and inode cache
fs.file-max = 209708

# Do less swapping
vm.swappiness = 30
vm.dirty_ratio = 30
vm.dirty_background_ratio = 5

# specifies the minimum virtual address that a process is allowed to mmap
vm.mmap_min_addr = 4096

# 50% overcommitment of available memory
vm.overcommit_ratio = 50
vm.overcommit_memory = 0

# Set maximum amount of memory allocated to shm to 256MB
kernel.shmmax = 268435456
kernel.shmall = 268435456

# Keep at least 64MB of free RAM space available
vm.min_free_kbytes = 65535



###
### GENERAL NETWORK SECURITY OPTIONS ###
###

#Prevent SYN attack, enable SYNcookies (they will kick-in when the max_syn_backlog reached)
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_syn_retries = 2
net.ipv4.tcp_synack_retries = 2
net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 4096

# Disables packet forwarding
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0
net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.forwarding = 0
net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding = 0
net.ipv6.conf.default.forwarding = 0

# Disables IP source routing
net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.send_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0
net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0

# Enable IP spoofing protection, turn on source route verification
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1

# Disable ICMP Redirect Acceptance
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.all.secure_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.secure_redirects = 0
net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_redirects = 0

# Enable Log Spoofed Packets, Source Routed Packets, Redirect Packets
net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.log_martians = 1

# Decrease the time default value for tcp_fin_timeout connection
net.ipv4.tcp_fin_timeout = 7

# Decrease the time default value for connections to keep alive
net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time = 300
net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_probes = 5
net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_intvl = 15

# Don't relay bootp
net.ipv4.conf.all.bootp_relay = 0

# Don't proxy arp for anyone
net.ipv4.conf.all.proxy_arp = 0

# Turn on the tcp_timestamps, accurate timestamp make TCP congestion control algorithms work better
net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 1

# Don't ignore directed pings
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_all = 0

# Enable ignoring broadcasts request
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1

# Enable bad error message Protection
net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses = 1

# Allowed local port range
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 16384 65535

# Enable a fix for RFC1337 - time-wait assassination hazards in TCP
net.ipv4.tcp_rfc1337 = 1

# Do not auto-configure IPv6
net.ipv6.conf.all.autoconf=0
net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_ra=0
net.ipv6.conf.default.autoconf=0
net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_ra=0
net.ipv6.conf.eth0.autoconf=0
net.ipv6.conf.eth0.accept_ra=0



###
### TUNING NETWORK PERFORMANCE ###
###

# Use BBR TCP congestion control and set tcp_notsent_lowat to 16384 to ensure HTTP/2 prioritization works optimally
# Do a 'modprobe tcp_bbr' first (kernel > 4.9)
# Fall-back to htcp if bbr is unavailable (older kernels)
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control = htcp
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control = bbr
net.ipv4.tcp_notsent_lowat = 16384
    
# For servers with tcp-heavy workloads, enable 'fq' queue management scheduler (kernel > 3.12)
net.core.default_qdisc = fq

# Turn on the tcp_window_scaling
net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling = 1

# Increase the read-buffer space allocatable
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 8192 87380 16777216
net.ipv4.udp_rmem_min = 16384
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 16777216

# Increase the write-buffer-space allocatable
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 8192 65536 16777216
net.ipv4.udp_wmem_min = 16384
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 16777216

# Increase number of incoming connections
net.core.somaxconn = 32768

# Increase number of incoming connections backlog
net.core.netdev_max_backlog = 16384
net.core.dev_weight = 64

# Increase the maximum amount of option memory buffers
net.core.optmem_max = 65535

# Increase the tcp-time-wait buckets pool size to prevent simple DOS attacks
net.ipv4.tcp_max_tw_buckets = 1440000

# try to reuse time-wait connections, but don't recycle them (recycle can break clients behind NAT)
net.ipv4.tcp_tw_recycle = 0
net.ipv4.tcp_tw_reuse = 1

# Limit number of orphans, each orphan can eat up to 16M (max wmem) of unswappable memory
net.ipv4.tcp_max_orphans = 16384
net.ipv4.tcp_orphan_retries = 0

# Limit the maximum memory used to reassemble IP fragments (CVE-2018-5391)
net.ipv4.ipfrag_low_thresh = 196608
net.ipv6.ip6frag_low_thresh = 196608
net.ipv4.ipfrag_high_thresh = 262144
net.ipv6.ip6frag_high_thresh = 262144


# don't cache ssthresh from previous connection
net.ipv4.tcp_no_metrics_save = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_moderate_rcvbuf = 1

# Increase size of RPC datagram queue length
net.unix.max_dgram_qlen = 50

# Don't allow the arp table to become bigger than this
net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh3 = 2048

# Tell the gc when to become aggressive with arp table cleaning.
# Adjust this based on size of the LAN. 1024 is suitable for most /24 networks
net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh2 = 1024

# Adjust where the gc will leave arp table alone - set to 32.
net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh1 = 32

# Adjust to arp table gc to clean-up more often
net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_interval = 30

# Increase TCP queue length
net.ipv4.neigh.default.proxy_qlen = 96
net.ipv4.neigh.default.unres_qlen = 6

# Enable Explicit Congestion Notification (RFC 3168), disable it if it doesn't work for you
net.ipv4.tcp_ecn = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_reordering = 3

# How many times to retry killing an alive TCP connection
net.ipv4.tcp_retries2 = 15
net.ipv4.tcp_retries1 = 3

# Avoid falling back to slow start after a connection goes idle
# keeps our cwnd large with the keep alive connections (kernel > 3.6)
net.ipv4.tcp_slow_start_after_idle = 0

# Allow the TCP fastopen flag to be used, beware some firewalls do not like TFO! (kernel > 3.7)
net.ipv4.tcp_fastopen = 3

# This will enusre that immediatly subsequent connections use the new values
net.ipv4.route.flush = 1
net.ipv6.route.flush = 1

There is a comment "Tested with: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS kernel version 3.13" Does that mean it is not tested with Ubuntu 18.04?

There is a comment "Tested with: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS kernel version 3.13" Does that mean it is not tested with Ubuntu 18.04?

@merc74
This can also be used with 18.04. 👍🏻

Thanks for the quick response.
It also says: #Intended use for dedicated server systems at high-speed networks with loads of RAM and bandwidth available.
I'm using your config on a dedicated server with only 2 gig of ram, but I have very high peeks of user's at specific times, and before it happens I do resize the server to 16 gig of ram because I have 1000 plus connection within 1 minute. I'm wondering if this config will be an issue when I'm only at 2gig of ram?

thank you for this

Here is more info about /etc/sysctl.conf file. https://www.howtouseubuntu.com/cloud/understanding-etc-sysctl-conf-file-in-linux/