Any Linux distribution
Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, RHEL, CentOS, and CloudLinux, all provisioned, hardened, patched, and monitored. If you are stranded on end-of-life CentOS, we migrate you to AlmaLinux or Rocky without losing data.
Server management for any Linux server
Linux Server Management
We manage your Linux servers directly — any distribution, with no control panel or a custom one — administered by senior administrators who have spent their careers on the command line: 24/7 monitoring, hardening, patching, and unlimited support, since 2005. When a kernel panic, a full disk, or an intrusion takes a server down, we perform disaster recovery, repairing it in place where we can and restoring from backup when we cannot. Moving from another host? We migrate you with little or no downtime, usually just a few minutes at cutover. One plan, $65 per server per month. Our Linux server management services are identical whether your server runs in your data center, on a VPS, or in the cloud.
call +1-877-378-7436 US Toll Free / +1-213-291-9191 International
Built for Hosting Companies
Your outsourced Linux server team — no control panel required
Many hosting companies run production Linux without cPanel or Plesk: bare Ubuntu or Debian, a hardened AlmaLinux or Rocky box, a custom in-house panel, or a stack assembled by hand. Server Surgeon has managed exactly those servers since 2005, with the same senior administrators, the same 24/7 queue, and the same flat $65 per server per month, administering your Linux servers over SSH.
What's Included
What our Linux server management includes
Everything it takes to run a production Linux server — on any distribution, with or without a control panel.
No control panel needed
We administer the server directly over SSH — the OS, the services, and the stack — with no panel at all. If you run a custom or in-house panel, or one we do not list, we manage that as well. The control panel is optional; the expertise is not.
The full server stack
We install, tune, and keep running the full stack: Apache, NginX, LiteSpeed, and PHP-FPM; MySQL, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL; Postfix, Exim, and Dovecot for mail; BIND for DNS; and Redis, Memcached, and Varnish for caching.
Hardening & security
We tune a CSF firewall to your traffic, add brute-force protection on SSH and services, harden the kernel and SSH, secure /tmp, scan for rootkits, keep up with security patches, and put SSL on every domain. PCI-compliance assistance is available for e-commerce servers. Hardening is optional and we recommend it to every customer; for anyone with concerns, we discuss it first and apply as much or as little as you want.
24/7 monitoring & support
We monitor CPU, memory, disk, RAID, network, and every running service; alerts land in our queue, not on your phone. Tickets are unlimited, with urgent ones answered in 5 to 10 minutes and standard ones in 10 to 30. There is no ticket limit and no hourly charge.
Migrations & disaster recovery
We handle server-to-server, data-center, and bare-metal-to-cloud migrations, with little or no downtime, usually just a few minutes at cutover. When something breaks — a crashed drive, a hack, a deleted database — a senior administrator works the problem until you are back online.
Inside the Server
How we handle day-to-day Linux server administration
With no control panel in the way, Linux server management comes down to understanding the system itself. We administer your server directly over SSH on whatever distribution it runs — Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky, RHEL, CentOS, or CloudLinux — learning your setup: the services you run, how they are configured, and whether you use a custom in-house panel or a stack assembled by hand. We keep the systemd units, user accounts and permissions, cron jobs, and logs in order.
The web and data stack is configured by hand, not generated by a panel. We write and tune Apache or NginX vhosts and PHP-FPM pools directly, tune MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL for the workload, and configure Postfix or Exim with Dovecot for mail, including the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records that keep it deliverable. BIND handles DNS, and Redis, Memcached, or Varnish handle caching. Let’s Encrypt keeps every domain on a valid certificate, and renewals do not lapse. If your stack requires Docker or a runtime such as Node.js, Python, or Ruby, we install it, keep it patched, and support the server side of running it. The application code and development itself belong to your team, though we are glad to help with the container or runtime setup when you ask.
Security and uptime are constant priorities. We run a CSF firewall tuned to your traffic, Fail2Ban on SSH and services, kernel and SSH hardening, a secured /tmp, rootkit scanning, and ongoing security patching, with reboots scheduled and announced in advance. Hardening is optional: we recommend it to every customer, and if you have any concerns, we talk it through first and apply only what you approve. The moment something needs attention — a service down, a disk filling, a load spike — our monitoring opens the ticket, and a senior administrator addresses it. Whether you run one server or a fleet, the Linux server administration is the same, 24/7/365.
Real Tickets, Real Fixes
Common Linux problems we resolve
A sample of the Linux tickets that reach our queue every week: the panel-agnostic, command-line work that keeps a server running.
A runaway process is pinning the CPU and the server is crawling
We identify the process responsible — a stuck cron job, a runaway script, a slow query, or a bot flood — then stop or throttle it, resolve the underlying cause, and prevent it from recurring.
The out-of-memory killer is taking down services
We determine what is consuming the RAM, tune the offenders (PHP-FPM children, MySQL buffers), repair or add swap, and right-size memory so the kernel stops terminating processes.
The disk is full — or out of inodes — and things are failing
We locate the consumed space — runaway logs, a flooded /tmp, an old backup, a stuck mail queue — clear it safely, and correct log rotation so the disk does not fill again.
A service won’t start after a change or reboot
We read the journal, fix the broken config or missing dependency behind the failed systemd unit, get it running, and confirm it starts cleanly on the next reboot.
NginX or Apache is throwing 502s
We identify the cause — a config syntax error, a dead PHP-FPM socket, a bad upstream — correct it, reload cleanly, and restore the sites without disturbing the vhosts that are working.
MySQL or MariaDB won’t start, or a table is corrupt
We recover the crashed InnoDB or MyISAM tables, correct the my.cnf change that broke startup, and bring the database back online with the data intact.
An SSL certificate expired or Let’s Encrypt won’t renew
We repair the renewal — a broken hook, a webroot or DNS issue, a rate limit — reissue the certificate, and confirm that auto-renewal succeeds next time.
Mail is bouncing or the server’s IP is on a blocklist
We repair Postfix or Exim, set SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, shut down the compromised account or script sending spam.
Infrastructure We Manage
Support for every Linux distro, on every hosting provider
We manage nine Linux distributions across the Red Hat and Debian lineages, every hyperscaler, and hundreds of bare-metal and cloud VPS providers. One queue, one price, one team.
LINUX DISTROS
HOSTING PROVIDERS
“Thank you for keeping me updated and for your fabulous support today. I can see that my client's websites are running just fine and email services are back to normal. You (Alexander) and Edward have provided exceptional service, thank you again!”
Paul Server Surgeon Customer
“Everyone was very helpful during this migration. You have a very friendly and knowledgeable staff who made this a cake walk for us. It's not often you work with multiple support reps who know exactly what's going on with a single account. You guys are awesome, and I tell everyone I know about you.”
Jim Server Surgeon Customer
“I have been using your services now for over 5 years and am extremely pleased with the relationship that we have established. Just set it and forget it — you provide a much-needed coverage in our gap between what we know, what we don't, and what we just don't know that we don't know…”
Scott Server Surgeon Customer
Get Started
Order Linux Server Management
$65 per Linux server per month, with volume and prepay discounts that stack. Unlimited tickets. Month-to-month, no fixed-term contract, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Order online and your server is in management within an hour or two of us receiving access. Running different panels across your fleet? Order them all on one invoice.
Migrating to a new server? It’s included — order management as you normally would, then describe the move in your onboarding ticket. We manage the old and new server at the cost of one and cut over with a final fast-sync, so there’s no separate migration charge and no interruption for your users — the cutover is scheduled to land with little or no downtime, usually just a few minutes.
Frequently Asked
Linux Server Management Quick FAQ
These are the questions we hear most often. Search our extensive FAQ here.
Do I need a control panel for you to manage my Linux server?
No. Managing “vanilla” Linux servers — no control panel at all — is the core of our Linux server management service. We administer the server directly over SSH: the OS, the web and database stack, mail, DNS, firewall, and everything else. If you run a custom or in-house panel, we manage that too.
Which Linux distributions do you support?
All the common ones — Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, RHEL, CentOS, CloudLinux, and more. We also handle CentOS-to-AlmaLinux / Rocky migrations for servers stranded on end-of-life CentOS.
We are stranded on CentOS 7. How do you move us to AlmaLinux or Rocky?
CentOS 7 reached end of life on June 30, 2024, and CentOS 8 ended even earlier, so a server on either one stops receiving security patches and should move to AlmaLinux or Rocky Linux, the two community successors to CentOS. We build a fresh AlmaLinux or Rocky server and migrate your data onto it, because a clean install is the safest route and lets you validate the new server first. There is no separate migration charge — we manage both servers at the cost of one until the move is complete. We keep a full backup staged throughout in case we need to roll back.
More questions
I run cPanel / Plesk / DirectAdmin / Virtualmin — is this the right page?
It is the same plan and the same $65 price either way, but for panel-specific detail see cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, or Virtualmin server management. This page is for Linux servers with no control panel, a custom panel, or a panel not listed.
What does Linux server management include?
24/7 monitoring, server hardening, OS and security patching, performance optimization, server migrations, disaster recovery, software installation, and unlimited support tickets — everything in our standard $65-per-server plan. Urgent tickets respond in 5 to 10 minutes, standard in 10 to 30.
Can you manage servers in our own data center or any cloud?
Yes — your own hardware, a colo, a VPS, or any cloud. See AWS and cloud server management. The Linux server management is identical wherever the server runs.
How long have you been managing Linux servers?
Since 2005 — 21 years. Every administrator who touches your server has 8+ years managing production web-hosting Linux servers.
Do you manage our web server, database, and service configs directly?
Yes. With no panel generating them, we write and maintain the configs by hand over SSH — Apache or NginX vhosts, PHP-FPM pools, MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL tuning, Postfix or Exim mail, and BIND DNS — changed carefully and kept reversible.
Can you take over a server someone else set up, or one that's poorly documented?
Yes. We audit what is installed and how it is configured, then stabilize and harden it, whether it is an inherited box, an in-house build, or a custom panel. You do not need to hand us a clean slate.
Do you harden a Linux server to a security baseline?
Yes. CSF firewall, Fail2Ban on SSH and services, kernel and SSH hardening, a secured /tmp, rootkit scanning, and ongoing security patching. Hardening is optional but we recommend it to every customer; if you have any concerns, we tailor it to what you are comfortable with and can apply all of it, some of it, or none. PCI-compliance assistance is available for e-commerce servers.
Do you install and support Docker, Node.js, Python, or Ruby?
Yes. We install them, keep the runtime patched, secured, and running, and we help with the server side when something breaks. The application code and the development environment are your team's domain, but if you need a hand with the container or runtime setup, ask us and we will help where we can. We manage the server it all runs on, at the flat $65-per-server price.
How do you manage a server that has no control panel?
We work over SSH as root or a sudo user, using your key or one we add for our team. With no panel, every task is done directly on the system — editing configs, managing services with systemd, reading logs. If you reach your servers through a bastion or jump host, we work through it too.
Can you manage a custom or in-house control panel?
Yes. If your servers run a custom or in-house panel, or one we do not list, we learn how it is built and manage the server around it — the OS, services, web and database stack, mail, and security — exactly like any other Linux server. The panel does not have to be one of the big four for us to manage the box.
Do you manage database, caching, and other role-specific servers?
Yes. Beyond web servers, we run dedicated MySQL, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL database servers — replication, backups, and tuning — along with Redis, Memcached, and Varnish caching layers. Each is monitored and hardened like any other Linux server we manage, at the same $65 per server per month.
Can you help bring a Linux server into PCI compliance?
We provide PCI-compliance assistance for e-commerce servers: hardening to the relevant controls, closing failed scan items, and configuring the firewall and logging. We help you meet the server-side requirements and work through an ASV scan report with you; the formal attestation stays with you and your QSA.
How do you handle kernel updates and reboots without surprise downtime?
We apply security patches as part of ongoing maintenance, and when a kernel update needs a reboot we schedule it in a window you approve and announce it in advance — never a surprise. Where your setup has redundancy, we reboot one node at a time so the service stays up.
Will you work alongside our own developers?
Yes. Many customers keep their developers on the application and bring us in for the server layer — hardening, monitoring, overnight on-call, and the deep Linux server administration. We document what we change and explain the why, so the two teams stay out of each other’s way.
We have answered many more. Browse our 150+ question FAQ or contact our sales team.
Try Server Surgeon for Thirty Days
Hand us your Linux servers and step out of the on-call rotation. Month-to-month, no fixed-term contract, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Most hosting companies stay because the late-night emergencies stop.
- Order online Takes five minutes
- Server under management Within an hour or two of access
- 30 days to decide Money-back if not the right fit
Or call +1-877-378-7436 US Toll Free / +1-213-291-9191 International
If you run a control panel, it is the same plan and price — see cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, or Virtualmin server management, or managing Linux on AWS and other clouds.
About Server Surgeon
About Server Surgeon
The same team every day, on every server. Three things we promise —
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21 years solving the same problems
We have handled every common Linux distribution, every panel, and every kind of outage before, and we know how to resolve them.
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Senior administrators only
Every ticket is handled by a senior admin with 8+ years of managing production web hosting servers. No outsourcing, no junior staff logged into your server.
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5.0★ on Facebook, 30-day money-back
Month-to-month, no fixed-term contract. If we are not the right fit, we refund you without argument. Read the reviews →
Server Surgeon has specialized in Linux server management since 2005. Many of our customers have trusted us with their Linux servers for more than a decade because they know they can count on our experienced Linux administrators when problems occur.
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