Unlike shared hosting, a VPS gives you dedicated resources — your CPU, RAM, and disk space are not shared with other customers. Here is how to monitor and manage your VPS resources.
How to Monitor Resource Usage via SSH
RAM Usage
free -h
This shows total RAM, used RAM, free RAM, and cached memory. The 'available' column is the most useful — it shows how much RAM can actually be used by new processes.
CPU Usage (Real-Time)
htop
htop shows a live view of CPU and RAM usage per process. Press q to quit. If htop is not installed: apt install htop -y
Disk Space
df -h
Shows disk usage for all mounted filesystems. The / (root) filesystem is your main disk.
Find Large Files/Directories
du -sh /* 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -20
This lists the 20 largest directories on your server — useful for finding what is eating your disk.
Hordanso VPS Resource Specifications
- Automation Starter (n8n): 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 75 GB NVMe
- Workflow Pro (n8n): 6 vCPU, 12 GB RAM, 100 GB NVMe
- Business Automator (n8n): 12 vCPU, 48 GB RAM, 250 GB NVMe
- Enterprise Workflow (n8n): 18 vCPU, 96 GB RAM, 350 GB NVMe
What to Do When Resources Are Low
Low RAM
- Identify high-RAM processes: ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -10
- Restart memory-leaking services: systemctl restart nginx or docker restart container_name
- Add a swap file as a temporary buffer (not a permanent fix)
- Upgrade to a higher RAM plan for a permanent solution
Low Disk Space
- Clean Docker images/containers: docker system prune -a
- Remove old log files: journalctl --vacuum-time=7d
- Delete old n8n execution logs from the database
- Upgrade to a plan with more storage
High CPU
- Identify the process: htop or top
- Optimise your n8n workflows to reduce execution frequency where possible
- Upgrade to a plan with more vCPU cores
