Monitoring VPS Resource Usage: A Comprehensive Guide

Monitoring VPS resource usage is crucial, as exceeding limits can negatively impact VPS performance due to incorrect configuration, insufficient resources, and other factors. Overcoming resource limits can cause server slowdown, server inaccessibility, and service failure.

a) Linux

Check CPU usage using the top command

1. First, log into your VPS via SSH and enter the top command to display all processes running on your VPS.

2. When you enter P in it, it will sort all running processes by CPU usage.

3. When you enter M there, it will sort all running processes by memory usage.

4. When you enter I in it, it will hide all idle processes.

5. When you type S in it, it will sort all processes by their running time.

6. When you type U in it, it will view all processes owned by a specific user.

Check CPU usage using the mpstat command

1. First, log into your VPS via SSH.

2. Then, install the sysstat package using the apt-get install sysstat -y command for Debian/Ubuntu or yum install sysstat -y  for CentOS/RHEL.

3. Next, use the mpstat command to display the usage of each processor.

4. You can use and run the mpstat -P 0 command to display the first processor’s report.

5. You can also use and run the mpstat -P ALL command to display reports for all processors.

6. When you type the mpstat -P ALL 2 3 command in it, it will display the average CPU usage three times with an interval of two seconds.

Check CPU usage using the sar command

1. First, log into your VPS via SSH and use the sar -u 2 command to track the CPU performance and display the CPU usage every 2 seconds.

Check CPU usage using the iostat command

1. First, log into your VPS via SSH and use the iostat command to display information about CPU utilization, device utilization, and network file system utilization.

2. When you enter the iostat -c command in it, it will divide the CPU utilization into user processes, system processes, I/O waiting, and idle time.

Check CPU usage using the vmstat command

1. First, log into your VPS via SSH and use the vmstat command to view system processes, memory, swap, I/O, and CPU performance since the last reboot.

2. When you enter the vmstat 2 command there, it will update the vmstat report every 2 seconds.

b) Windows

Check CPU usage using the Task Manager

1. First, log into your Windows VPS server and search for and open Task Manager.

2. Then, click the More Details button.

3. Finally, navigate to Performance, where you can monitor the usage of CPU, Memory and Ethernet.

• CPU: Use this chart to check real-time CPU usage.

• Memory: Use these charts to check the real-time usage of memory (i.e., RAM).

• Ethernet: Monitor the real-time usage of your Internet connection.

4. You can also perform process monitoring from the Processes tab to find more details about it.

Check CPU usage using the Resource Monitor

1. First, log into your Windows VPS server and search for and open Server Manager.

2. Next, navigate to Tools and select Resource Monitor.

3. Then the real-time usage graph of CPU, memory, disk, and network will be displayed, which is the same as the task manager.

4. You can access each available option at the top to further analyze the usage of individual resources.

5. If you click “CPU,” it will display all real-time programs that consume a specific CPU amount, along with their status, PID, and description.

• Status: This indicates whether the process is currently running, active, or paused.
• PID: This stands for Process ID.
• Description: The description of the executable file is available.

6. You can even monitor all service names running under the CPU and the usage of each CPU through charts.

7. If you click “Memory,” it will show all the live programs consuming a certain amount of RAM and their status: PID, Hard Fault, Commit, Working Set, Shareable, and Private.

• Status: This indicates whether the process is running, active, or paused.
• PID: This stands for Process ID.
• Hard Fault: average number of hard page faults per second in the last minute
• Commit: The amount of virtual memory reserved by the operating system for a process.
• Working Set: The amount of physical memory currently used by the process.
• Shareable: The amount of memory shared by one process that can be shared by another process.
• Private: the amount of memory used by a process that cannot be used by other processes.

8. You can also check the reasonable usage of RAM through “Hardware Reserve“, “In Use“, “Modified“, “Standby” and “Free“.

9. If you click on “Disk,” it will show all the live programs consuming a certain amount of storage, along with their status, PID, reads, writes, and totals.

• Status: This indicates whether the process is running, active, or paused.
• PID: This stands for Process ID.
• Reads: The average number of bytes read by the process in the last minute.
• Write: The average number of bytes written by the process in the last minute.
• Total: The average number of bytes accessed per second by the process.

10. You can also monitor the program’s real-time disk activity through charts.

11. If you click on “Network,” it will show all the live programs that consume a certain amount of network, along with their name, PID, send, receive, and total.

• Name: Application name.
• PID: This stands for Process ID.
• Send: The number of bytes sent by the process in the last minute.
• Receive: The number of bytes received by the process in the last minute.

12. You can also monitor real-time network usage with the help of graphs and network activity tabs.

13. You can monitor TCP connections and listening port activity from the same option.

Check CPU usage using the Performance Monitor

1. First, log into your Windows VPS server and search for and open Performance Monitor.

2. It will then display an overview of the tool along with real-time statistics of physical memory, disk usage, network adapter, and processor usage.

3. You can monitor the processor time counter in Performance Monitoring, which shows the load for the last 100 seconds.

4. You can also easily monitor the chart by adding additional variables.

5. Then, right-click on the interface and select the Properties button to modify the chart settings and the monitor’s visual appearance.

6. The Properties interface allows you to customize the data, graphics, and appearance of the Performance Monitor output.