How to Speed Up a VPS Server

2 months ago
nikolay
2 minutes

Speeding Up a VPS Server

1. System Resource Optimization

  • Update OS and packages – always run the latest stable versions for better performance and security.
  • Remove unnecessary software – uninstall unused packages and libraries (apt-get autoremove, yum remove).
  • Disable unused services – keep only the services that are really needed.

2. Web Server Optimization

For Apache:

  • Enable mod_deflate (compression).
  • Use KeepAlive for persistent connections.

For Nginx:

  • Enable gzip compression.
  • Configure caching for static files.

3. Database Optimization

MySQL / MariaDB:

  • Set innodb_buffer_pool_size to ~60–70% of RAM.
  • Enable query cache (if applicable).
  • Analyze slow queries with slow_query_log.

PostgreSQL:

  • Adjust shared_buffers (~25–30% of RAM).
  • Configure work_mem for complex queries.

4. Use Caching

  • Opcache (for PHP) – reduces CPU load.
  • Memcached / Redis – store frequently used data in memory.
  • CDN (e.g., Cloudflare) – offload requests from your server.

5. Monitoring and Analysis

  • Use tools like htop, iotop, vmstat, sar for real-time performance checks.
  • Set up Netdata, Grafana + Prometheus, or Zabbix for long-term monitoring.

6. Extra Tips

  • Configure swap, but don’t use it as a replacement for RAM.
  • Run regular backups to prevent data loss.
  • Optimize application code (SQL queries, database structure).

✅ Conclusion: VPS acceleration comes from tuning the OS, web server, databases, and caching. Continuous monitoring ensures stable performance and helps react quickly to issues.