Top 12 Server Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today’s competitive job market, showcasing the right server skills on your resume can significantly elevate your chances of landing your desired role in the hospitality industry. This article outlines the top 12 server skills that employers value, helping you to craft a resume that stands out and demonstrates your capability to excel in service-oriented positions.

Server Skills

1. SQL
2. PostgreSQL
3. MongoDB
4. Apache
5. Nginx
6. Docker
7. Kubernetes
8. Redis
9. AWS
10. Node.js
11. PowerShell
12. Linux

1. SQL

SQL (Structured Query Language) is a standardized programming language used for managing and manipulating relational databases on a server, including data retrieval, insertion, updating, and deletion.

Why It's Important

SQL (Structured Query Language) is essential for servers because it provides a standardized, efficient way to create, retrieve, update, and manage data stored in relational databases, enabling dynamic and interactive web applications.

How to Improve SQL Skills

Improving SQL performance involves optimizing queries, indexing, and database configuration. Here are concise tips:

1. Optimize Queries: Write efficient SQL queries by selecting only necessary columns, avoiding SELECT *, and using JOINs appropriately. SQL Query Optimization

2. Use Indexes: Properly index tables to speed up data retrieval. However, avoid over-indexing as it can slow down data insertion. SQL Indexing

3. Database Normalization: Normalize your database to eliminate redundancy, but also consider denormalization for read-heavy operations. Database Normalization

4. Analyze Query Performance: Use EXPLAIN plans to analyze and understand how your SQL queries are executed. Using EXPLAIN

5. Partitioning: Partition large tables into smaller, more manageable pieces, improving query performance. Table Partitioning

6. Caching: Implement caching strategies to reduce database load for frequently accessed data. Database Caching

7. Concurrent Connections: Manage concurrent connections wisely to prevent locking and blocking issues. Concurrency Control

8. Regular Maintenance: Perform regular database maintenance tasks such as updating statistics, rebuilding indexes, and database integrity checks. SQL Server Maintenance

Each aspect significantly contributes to overall SQL performance on a server.

How to Display SQL Skills on Your Resume

2. PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is an open-source, object-relational database management system (RDBMS) known for its reliability, robustness, and performance, capable of handling a wide range of workloads from single machines to large web-facing applications.

Why It's Important

PostgreSQL is important for a server because it provides a robust, open-source database system with strong reliability, advanced data management features, and support for SQL and NoSQL data models, enabling efficient data storage, retrieval, and complex querying capabilities for various applications.

How to Improve PostgreSQL Skills

Improving PostgreSQL performance involves several key strategies, focusing on server configuration, query optimization, and hardware adjustments. Here's a concise guide:

1. Optimize Server Configuration: Adjust PostgreSQL configuration parameters in postgresql.conf for better performance. Key parameters include shared_buffers, work_mem, maintenance_work_mem, and effective_cache_size. PostgreSQL Documentation offers detailed explanations.

2. Indexing: Use appropriate indexing strategies (e.g., B-tree, Hash, GiST, SP-GiST, and GIN) to speed up data retrieval. Indexing in PostgreSQL provides insights into effective index usage.

3. Analyze and Optimize Queries: Use EXPLAIN and EXPLAIN ANALYZE to understand and optimize query plans. Avoiding common pitfalls like unnecessary joins or selecting more columns than needed can significantly improve query performance. Using EXPLAIN outlines how to analyze query performance.

4. Connection Pooling: Implement connection pooling to manage a large number of client connections efficiently. Tools like PgBouncer or Pgpool-II can help. PgBouncer and Pgpool-II offer solutions for managing connections.

5. Regular Maintenance: Perform routine database maintenance tasks such as vacuuming, analyzing, and reindexing. These help in reclaiming storage, updating statistics, and maintaining index performance. Routine Database Maintenance covers essential maintenance tasks.

6. Partitioning: For very large tables, consider partitioning them to improve query performance and management. Partitioning explains how to partition tables in PostgreSQL.

7. Hardware Considerations: Finally, improving the underlying hardware (e.g., faster CPUs, more RAM, SSDs over HDDs) can offer significant performance boosts. Tailor your hardware to your workload needs.

For a comprehensive guide and more detailed strategies, refer to the PostgreSQL Performance Tuning documentation.

How to Display PostgreSQL Skills on Your Resume

3. MongoDB

MongoDB is a document-oriented NoSQL database used for high volume data storage, offering high performance, high availability, and easy scalability, designed to work with large sets of distributed data.

Why It's Important

MongoDB is important for servers because it offers a flexible, scalable, and high-performance NoSQL database solution that efficiently handles large volumes of data and complex queries, making it ideal for dynamic web applications.

How to Improve MongoDB Skills

To improve MongoDB performance on a server, consider the following concise strategies:

1. Indexing: Properly index your collections to enhance query performance. MongoDB Indexing
2. Sharding: Distribute your data across multiple servers using sharding for horizontal scalability. MongoDB Sharding
3. Optimize Queries: Write efficient queries to reduce the workload on your server. Query Optimization
4. Hardware Optimization: Upgrade your server's hardware, focusing on RAM and SSDs, to improve overall performance. Hardware Considerations
5. Connection Pooling: Use connection pooling to reduce connection overheads. Connection Pooling
6. Monitoring and Profiling: Regularly monitor and profile your database to identify bottlenecks. Database Profiling
7. Replication: Use replication to ensure data availability and redundancy. Replication

By implementing these strategies, you can significantly improve the performance and reliability of MongoDB on your server.

How to Display MongoDB Skills on Your Resume

4. Apache

Apache is a widely-used, open-source web server software system that facilitates serving web content and managing web-based applications.

Why It's Important

Apache is a widely-used web server software that enables websites to be accessible over the internet. It is important because it is reliable, highly customizable, supports a wide range of modules for additional functionality, and is compatible with almost all operating systems, making it a versatile and stable choice for hosting websites.

How to Improve Apache Skills

Improving Apache performance involves optimizing its configuration to better handle server load and resource usage. Here's a concise guide:

1. Enable Compression: Use mod_deflate to compress content before sending it to the client, reducing bandwidth usage and improving load times. Apache mod_deflate

2. Enable Caching: Implement mod_cache to store frequently accessed content in memory or on disk, reducing server processing time. Apache mod_cache

3. Optimize Content Delivery: Utilize mod_expires to add expiration headers to static resources, allowing browsers to cache these files and reduce repeated downloads. Apache mod_expires

4. Tune Apache Performance Settings: Adjust the MaxRequestWorkers, KeepAlive, and Timeout directives based on your server's resources and expected load. Apache Performance Tuning

5. Use a Multi-Processing Module (MPM): Choose an MPM like Event or Worker that matches your workload characteristics for better scalability and resource management. Apache MPM

6. Monitor and Analyze Server Performance: Regularly check log files and use tools like apachetop or mod_status to monitor Apache's performance and identify bottlenecks. Apache mod_status

7. Secure Your Server: Implement SSL/TLS with mod_ssl, use .htaccess files wisely, and keep your Apache and all modules up to date to ensure security doesn't compromise performance. Apache mod_ssl

8. Consider Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN): Offload static content delivery to a CDN to reduce your server's load and improve global access speeds.

By carefully tuning Apache's configuration and adopting best practices, you can significantly improve your server's performance and efficiency.

How to Display Apache Skills on Your Resume

5. Nginx

Nginx is a high-performance, open-source web server software designed to handle high volumes of traffic efficiently. It is known for its stability, rich feature set, low resource usage, and easy configuration. Nginx can also function as a reverse proxy, load balancer, and HTTP cache.

Why It's Important

Nginx is important for a server because it acts as a high-performance web server and reverse proxy, efficiently handling connections and serving static content, which improves website speed, scalability, and security.

How to Improve Nginx Skills

Improving Nginx performance involves several strategies focusing on optimization and efficient configuration. Here are key steps:

1. Optimize Nginx Configuration: Review and adjust Nginx configuration settings for better performance. Key parameters include worker_processes, worker_connections, and the keepalive_timeout directive. Set worker_processes equal to the number of CPU cores. Increase worker_connections based on your load. Adjust keepalive_timeout to manage keep-alive connections efficiently. Nginx Documentation

2. Enable Compression: Use the gzip directive to compress files before sending them to the client, reducing data transfer and improving load times. Module ngx_http_gzip_module

3. Leverage Caching: Implement caching to reduce server load and response times for repeat visitors. You can set up caching at various levels, including browser caching, and microcaching for dynamic content. Nginx Caching Guide

4. Use HTTP/2: Enable HTTP/2 in Nginx to take advantage of performance improvements over HTTP/1.x, such as multiplexing and server push. Ensure SSL is configured, as HTTP/2 requires it. Configuring HTTP/2

5. Secure and Limit Connections: Protect your server from abusive traffic and DDoS attacks by limiting the rate of requests using the limit_req module and the number of connections with the limit_conn module. Limiting Rates

6. Optimize SSL/TLS: Use strong ciphers and enable SSL session caching to reduce the SSL handshake overhead. SSL Optimization

7. Static Content Optimization: Ensure efficient delivery of static resources by using the expires directive to add cache-control headers, thus reducing the number of requests to the server. NGINX as HTTP Server

8. Monitor and Debug: Use tools like nginx -t for configuration testing, nginx -s reload for applying changes without downtime, and log analysis tools for identifying performance bottlenecks. Logging and Monitoring

By applying these strategies and continuously monitoring your server's performance, you can significantly improve the efficiency and speed of your Nginx server.

How to Display Nginx Skills on Your Resume

6. Docker

Docker is a platform that allows you to create, deploy, and manage virtualized application containers on a common operating system, enabling easy packaging and distribution of applications across different server environments.

Why It's Important

Docker is important for servers because it enables consistent, lightweight, and secure packaging of applications and their dependencies into containers. This facilitates easy deployment, scaling, and isolation, improving the efficiency and reliability of server environments.

How to Improve Docker Skills

Improving Docker performance on a server involves optimizing various aspects of Docker configurations and the host system. Here are concise steps to enhance Docker efficiency:

1. Optimize Images: Use smaller base images and multi-stage builds to reduce image size and build time. Docker Best practices for writing Dockerfiles.

2. Manage Resources: Limit CPU and memory resources per container using --cpus and --memory flags to prevent resource contention. Runtime options with Memory, CPUs, and GPUs.

3. Use Docker Compose: For managing multi-container setups efficiently and to streamline container orchestration. Docker Compose Overview.

4. Enable BuildKit: Improve build performance by enabling Docker BuildKit. It can be enabled by setting DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 before your build commands. Build images with BuildKit.

5. Persistent Data Performance: For data persistence, use volumes instead of bind mounts where possible, and consider the performance impact of different storage drivers. Manage data in Docker.

6. Network Optimization: Use appropriate network drivers and manage network ports efficiently to reduce overhead. Networking overview.

7. Prune Regularly: Regularly clean up unused objects (images, containers, volumes, networks) with docker system prune to free up space. Prune unused Docker objects.

8. Security Scans: Regularly scan your Docker images for vulnerabilities with Docker Scan or third-party tools to maintain security. Scan images for vulnerabilities.

9. Update Docker and Host OS: Keep your Docker engine and host operating system up to date to benefit from performance improvements and bug fixes. Update Docker.

10. Monitoring and Logging: Implement monitoring and logging to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize accordingly. Configure logging drivers.

By following these practices, you can significantly improve the performance and efficiency of Docker on a server.

How to Display Docker Skills on Your Resume

7. Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open-source platform designed to automate deploying, scaling, and operating application containers across clusters of servers.

Why It's Important

Kubernetes is important because it provides a platform for automating the deployment, scaling, and operations of application containers across clusters of hosts, enhancing server efficiency, and ensuring high availability and scalability of applications.

How to Improve Kubernetes Skills

Improving Kubernetes performance and efficiency on a server involves several key strategies:

1. Cluster Sizing: Properly size your cluster based on the workload demands. Evaluate and adjust the number of nodes and pods to avoid over or underutilization (Kubernetes Cluster Sizing Guide).

2. Resource Limits: Define resource requests and limits for pods to optimize the allocation of CPU and memory, ensuring efficient scheduling and stability.

3. Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA): Implement HPA to automatically scale the number of pods in a deployment, replication controller, replica set, or stateful set based on observed CPU utilization or custom metrics.

4. Network Optimization: Use high-performance CNI (Container Network Interface) plugins and optimize network policies to reduce latency and improve security.

5. Storage Optimization: Choose the right storage class and configure persistent volume (PV) and persistent volume claim (PVC) efficiently to enhance I/O performance.

6. Monitoring and Logging: Employ tools like Prometheus for monitoring and Elasticsearch, Fluentd, and Kibana (EFK) stack or Grafana and Loki for logging to identify and troubleshoot performance bottlenecks.

7. Regular Updates: Keep Kubernetes and its components up to date to benefit from performance improvements, security patches, and new features (Kubernetes Versioning and Updates).

8. Security Best Practices: Implement security best practices, including role-based access control (RBAC), network policies, and security contexts to minimize the attack surface (Kubernetes Security Best Practices).

9. Stateless Applications: Whenever possible, architect applications to be stateless to enhance scalability and resilience (Designing Distributed Systems).

10. Use Managed Kubernetes Services: Consider using a managed Kubernetes service like Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Amazon EKS, or Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for automatic scaling, management, and updates.

By focusing on these key areas, you can significantly improve the performance, scalability, and reliability of Kubernetes on a server.

How to Display Kubernetes Skills on Your Resume

8. Redis

Redis is an in-memory, key-value store database that supports different kinds of abstract data structures, such as strings, lists, maps, sets, sorted sets, HyperLogLogs, bitmaps, streams, and spatial indexes. It is widely used for caching, session management, and real-time analytics in server environments due to its high performance and scalability.

Why It's Important

Redis is important for a server because it provides fast, in-memory data storage and retrieval, enabling quick access to frequently used data, reducing latency, and improving application performance.

How to Improve Redis Skills

Improving Redis performance involves optimizing its configuration, hardware, and usage patterns. Here are concise tips:

1. Use Appropriate Data Types: Choose the most memory-efficient data types for your use case. Redis Data Types

2. Memory Management: Regularly monitor and configure memory usage policies according to your needs. Use the maxmemory-policy setting to control the eviction of data. Memory Optimization

3. Persistence Configuration: Balance between durability and performance by configuring the right persistence options (RDB, AOF, or both). Persistence

4. Connection Pooling: Instead of connecting and disconnecting for every operation, use connection pooling. Connection Management

5. Pipeline Commands: Reduce latency by grouping commands together instead of executing them separately. Pipelining

6. Partition Data: Use clustering to distribute data across multiple Redis instances. Partitioning

7. Monitor and Analyze: Regularly monitor your Redis server using redis-cli --stat, INFO command, or Redis monitoring tools. Identify bottlenecks and patterns. Monitoring Redis

8. Use Lua Scripts for Complex Operations: Reduce network round-trips by executing Lua scripts for complex operations server-side. Lua Scripting

9. Keep Redis Version Updated: Ensure you are using the latest version of Redis to benefit from performance improvements and new features. Redis Downloads

10. Optimize Server Configuration: Tailor your redis.conf file to match your specific workload and system environment. Pay special attention to directives like save, appendonly, no-appendfsync-on-rewrite, etc. Configuring Redis

Improving Redis performance is an ongoing process of monitoring, tuning, and updating both the software and its environment.

How to Display Redis Skills on Your Resume

9. AWS

AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a cloud computing platform that provides scalable and flexible server infrastructure for hosting applications and services over the internet.

Why It's Important

AWS is important for servers because it offers scalable, reliable, and secure cloud computing resources, allowing businesses to deploy and manage applications and services globally with ease.

How to Improve AWS Skills

Improving an AWS server involves optimizing performance, enhancing security, and managing costs effectively. Here are concise strategies:

1. Performance Optimization:

   • Use Auto Scaling to adjust resources automatically Auto Scaling.
   • Select the right EC2 instance type based on your workload EC2 Instances.

2. Security Enhancement:

   • Implement IAM Policies for fine-grained access control IAM Policies.
   • Enable CloudTrail to log and monitor account activity AWS CloudTrail.

3. Cost Management:

   • Use Reserved Instances for long-term savings Reserved Instances.
   • Monitor with CloudWatch to identify unused resources Amazon CloudWatch.

By focusing on these areas, you can significantly improve the efficiency, security, and cost-effectiveness of your AWS server.

How to Display AWS Skills on Your Resume

10. Node.js

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform, JavaScript runtime environment that allows you to run JavaScript on the server side, enabling the development of scalable network applications.

Why It's Important

Node.js is important for servers because it enables non-blocking, event-driven programming, allowing for efficient handling of multiple simultaneous connections, leading to high performance and scalability in web applications.

How to Improve Node.js Skills

Improving Node.js performance for a server involves optimizing various aspects, from code practices to server configuration. Here are key strategies:

1. Use Asynchronous Code: Maximize Node.js's non-blocking capabilities by preferring asynchronous methods. This prevents I/O operations from blocking the event loop, improving scalability and performance. Node.js Docs on Asynchronous Programming.

2. Implement Caching: Use caching mechanisms to store frequently accessed data in memory, reducing the need to perform costly operations like database queries. Redis is a popular choice for a high-performance cache store. Redis with Node.js.

3. Optimize Database Queries: Ensure queries are efficient and indexed appropriately. This decreases the load on your database and speeds up response times. Optimizing Node.js Application Performance with MongoDB.

4. Utilize Load Balancing: Distribute incoming network traffic across multiple servers using load balancers. This enhances responsiveness and availability. Node.js Cluster Module allows for easy setup of load-balanced Node.js applications.

5. Profile and Monitor Performance: Regularly monitor your application's performance using tools like Node.js's built-in profiler or third-party services such as New Relic or Datadog. This helps in identifying bottlenecks. Node.js Performance Monitoring Guide.

6. Streamline JSON Parsing: JSON parsing can be CPU-intensive. For large payloads, consider using streaming JSON parsers like JSONStream or optimizing the usage of JSON.parse(). Efficient JSON Processing with Node.js.

7. Keep Dependencies Updated: Regularly update your Node.js version and dependencies to benefit from performance improvements, security patches, and new features. Use tools like npm update and npm audit to manage updates. NPM Update Docs.

8. Employ Compression: Use compression middleware like compression in your Node.js server to reduce the size of the response body, thereby increasing the speed of data transfer over the network. Compression Middleware for Express.

Each of these strategies can contribute to significantly improving the performance and reliability of your Node.js server. Implementing them requires a tailored approach based on your application's specific needs and traffic patterns.

How to Display Node.js Skills on Your Resume

11. PowerShell

PowerShell is a command-line shell and scripting language developed by Microsoft, designed for system administration and automation of tasks on Windows Server environments and other Windows operating systems.

Why It's Important

PowerShell is important for server management because it enables automated, scalable, and efficient administration of servers through its powerful scripting capabilities, allowing for complex configurations, system monitoring, and task automation with precision and minimal effort.

How to Improve PowerShell Skills

Improving PowerShell performance and capability, especially on a server, involves optimizing scripts, using advanced features, and integrating with external tools. Here’s a concise guide:

1. Learn Advanced Features: Familiarize yourself with advanced PowerShell features like PowerShell remoting, background jobs, and workflows for more efficient task management.

2. Utilize Modules: Leverage additional modules to extend PowerShell's capabilities. Use the Find-Module cmdlet to discover and Install-Module to add new functionalities.

3. Optimize Scripts: Ensure your scripts are optimized for performance; avoid using unnecessary loops, and prefer PowerShell cmdlets over external commands where possible. Understanding the pipeline can significantly enhance efficiency.

4. Profile and Debug: Use the PowerShell ISE for scripting, which comes with built-in profiling and debugging tools to analyze and improve script performance.

5. Security Best Practices: Implement execution policies to safeguard your server environment. Understand and use secure credential storage methods.

6. Automate with Scheduled Tasks: Automate repetitive tasks using PowerShell scripts with Task Scheduler for time-based script execution.

7. Update PowerShell: Regularly update your PowerShell version to benefit from performance improvements and new features. Check the latest version and update guidance on the official PowerShell GitHub page.

8. Leverage Community Resources: Engage with the PowerShell community. Sites like PowerShell Gallery and StackOverflow can be invaluable for finding solutions and script examples.

By applying these strategies, you can enhance PowerShell’s performance and functionality on your server, making management tasks more efficient and secure.

How to Display PowerShell Skills on Your Resume

12. Linux

Linux is an open-source, Unix-like operating system widely used for servers, offering robust security, stability, and flexibility in network and system administration.

Why It's Important

Linux is important for servers because it offers stability, security, and flexibility, allowing for efficient management of server resources and robust support for networking and development tasks.

How to Improve Linux Skills

Improving Linux performance for a server involves several key steps, focusing on optimization, security, and regular maintenance. Here’s a concise guide:

1. Update System: Regularly update your Linux server to the latest version to ensure you have the latest features and security patches.

2. Use Lightweight Services: Opt for lightweight alternatives for services to reduce the server load.

3. Configure Swappiness: Adjust the swappiness value to control the swap usage, improving performance.

4. Monitor Performance: Utilize tools like top, htop, iotop, or nmon for real-time monitoring of your server to identify any bottlenecks.

5. Security: Implement firewall solutions like iptables or firewalld and fail2ban for protecting against unauthorized access.

6. Regular Backups: Ensure you have a robust backup strategy in place to prevent data loss.

7. Optimize File Systems: Use file systems optimized for your workload, like ext4, xfs, or btrfs, and consider tuning them as per your needs.

8. Network Configuration: Optimize your network settings for better performance, especially if you’re serving content to a large number of users.

9. Use SSDs: For IO-intensive applications, moving to SSDs can significantly improve performance.

10. Database Optimization: Regularly optimize your databases to improve efficiency and response time.

By implementing these strategies, you can significantly improve the performance and security of your Linux server. Regular monitoring and maintenance are key to ensuring that the server continues to operate efficiently over time.

How to Display Linux Skills on Your Resume