How to analyse VPS webserver performance?

[alistairgd]

I need to gauge how my VPS server is performing under current load to asses if it can cope with an expected upsurge in website visitors. I'm not looking to stress test a live environment - just looking for server metrics that indicate relevant stats on usage?

How do I do this - where would I look in WHM to analyse how the server is currently coping and maybe identify any issues?

[robzilla]

I believe there's a Munin add-on for WHM.

[alistairgd]

This looks great - thanks robzilla!

[alistairgd]

Munin isn't in the plugin section so I'll need to ask the host to install it for me.

But I did find LVE manager which gives some stats such as IO, Speed, PMEM etc.

[robzilla]

That'll also work, but it looks like a bit more effort to get the graphs you want, each time you want them.

However, Munin can be a little CPU-heavy, regenerating all the graphs every 5 minutes. But that's less of an issue with modern-day CPUs and it's just a single server.

Big fan and user of Munin myself. You can graph just about anything.

[alistairgd]

That's it installed now, I'll take a look at the graphs after a few days.

[alistairgd]

Hi Robzilla, which graphs would you recommend I look at to check that sites are operating within normal parameters?

[robzilla]

CPU Usage and Memory Usage are the ones I rely on most. On some servers I'll also have Munin graph database queries, web server requests, cache hits, etc. for a bit more detail and to quickly get to the root when there's an issue. Swap In/Out and Disk Latency can be helpful in the same way.

I've never done it on a per-site basis, but I'm sure it's possible (if a little complicated, once you get into writing your own Munin plug-ins). Usually the default graphs work fine for me to check the overall health of the server and diagnose any issues.

By default, Munin comes with quite a lot of plug-ins/graphs enabled, many of which you probably won't really need. I disable about half of them usually. Not sure if you can do that from WHM. Each graph it doesn't have to generate every 5 minutes is a bit of processing power saved.

[Kella65]

To speed up VPS webserver performance, we recommend installing a high-performance Nginx web server with it. Then they will work simultaneously, and each will perform its role. VPS backend server will work with requests that came from forms on the site.

[Brett_Tabke]

> reduce load

Install http/2 and brotli compression modules (there are guides on Cpanels site).

http/2 will cut down on server load because it 'pipelines' requests. It can send multiple files over the same connection (which means a new instance of your server isn't called out to service every file). It really cuts the over head and reduces bandwidth usage.

Brotli compression was built by a Google dev in his 20% time. They released it freeware a couple years ago. It is about 10-30% tighter than Gzip.

Not convinced? I added http/2 module and Brotli compression this week (your soaking in it). We went from 95-96 here on Google Page insights to a perfect 100 on both desktop and mobile by installing those 2.

[alistairgd]

Interesting Brett, thanks for the tip!