The Cloudways Velocity (Managed Node.JS Hosting) Application and Server Overview page in Cloudways platform gives you one place to manage your application after it is launched.
From this page, you can view application details, monitor server resources, connect a domain, manage database credentials, create backups, restore data, review deployments, and update important settings.
This guide explains each main section of the application on Cloudways Velocity dashboard in simple steps, so you can understand what each option does and when to use it.
Cloudways Velocity Overview
Follow these steps to access and manage your application on Cloudways Velocity.
Note:
Some options, such as Monitoring, are now available under the Server section. The navigation path is shown in each step where this applies.
Step #1 - Open the Velocity Menu:
From the Cloudways Platform, click Velocity from the left-side menu.
The Velocity menu shows the following options:
My Applications — view and manage your existing applications on Cloudways Velocity.
Archive — view archived applications, if available.
Add Application — launch a new application on Cloudways Velocity.
Click My Applications to open your application list.
Step #2 - Select Your Application on Cloudways Velocity:
On the Velocity Web App page, you can view all your applications on Cloudways Velocity.
Each application card shows useful information, such as:
Application name
Current plan
Server location
Creation date
Click the application you want to manage. This will open the application overview area.
You can also click Add Application if you want to launch another application on Cloudways Velocity.
Step #3 - View the Application Overview:
The Overview page gives you a quick summary of your application on Cloudways Velocity. To open it, select your application and click Overview at the top of the left-side application menu.
The page is divided into four sections: Last Deployment, PM2 Service, Application Backup, and Application Domain.
Last Deployment
This section shows the details of your most recent deployment. A status badge (for example, Completed) appears along with the date and time of the deployment.
Repository: the Git repository connected to the app.
Author: the user who triggered the deployment.
Commit: the specific code version used in the deployment.
Branch: the Git branch used for deployment.
Logs: click View to open the deployment logs.
Root Directory: the folder where your application code is located.
Framework: the framework used by your app, such as Express.
Node Version: the Node.js version used by your app.
Build and Output Settings: shows whether default or custom build settings are being used. Click View to see the details.
Click All Deployments at the top right of this section to view your complete deployment history.
PM2 Service
PM2 is the process manager that runs your Node.js application. This section lets you start, stop, or restart it.
Status: shows whether the service is currently Running.
Click Stop to stop the PM2 process. Your application will be unavailable until you start it again.
Click Restart to restart the PM2 process. This is useful after changing environment variables or if your application becomes unresponsive.
Note:
Stopping the PM2 service takes your application offline. Use Restart if you only need to refresh the process.
Application Backup
This section lets you create a saved copy of your application that you can restore if needed.
Last backup: shows the date and time of the most recent backup.
Click Take Backup to create a manual backup immediately.
To change your backup schedule or restore a backup, go to Backup & Restore in the left-side menu.
Application Domain
This section shows the domain currently assigned to your application.
Until you add your own domain, your app uses a temporary domain, for example
nodejs-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxx.cloudwaysnodeapps.com.The status badges below the domain show which features are active for your application: Malware Protected, Auto-Deployment, and Cloudflare.
Click Connect Domain to attach your own domain.
Add a Custom Domain:
From the Overview page, click on Connect Domain when adding a custom domain, and enter your domain name in the Domain field.
A custom domain is your own website address, such as Mytest.com.
After entering the domain, click Confirm.
This will connect the domain to your application inside Cloudways.
Step #4 - View Monitoring Summary in Server:
From the application Overview page, click the server name (for example, NodeJS) at the top of the page. Under Servers, select your server to open the Server Overview page.
You can also access server as shown below:
Server Overview
The Server Overview page gives you a quick summary of the server your applications run on. The left-side server menu includes Overview, Monitoring, Manage Services, Settings, Security, and Backups.
From this page, you can view:
Plan Details: shows your current plan and an estimate of the amount you owe based on your month-to-date usage, including resource overage and autoscaling server costs.
Summary: shows the current RAM Usage, CPU Usage, and Disk Usage of your server.
You can also use this page to:
Click Edit Plan to change your plan.
Click Refresh in the Summary section to load the latest usage data.
Open the Monitoring Summary
From the left-side server menu, click Monitoring as shown in the above image, and open the Summary tab.
This page shows important server health information under Server Health, such as:
RAM Usage: shows how much memory your server is using.
CPU Usage: shows how much processing power your server is using.
Disk Usage: shows how much storage space is being used. You can click Optimization Settings to run a disk optimization.
Bandwidth Usage: shows the amount of data transferred this month, along with the date and time it was last updated.
Click Refresh to load the latest monitoring data.
Open Monitoring Details:
Go to Monitoring from the left-side server menu.
Click the Details tab to view resource usage in graph form.
You can select the resource type, such as Idle CPU, and choose a time range, such as 1 Hour.
Click Refresh to load the latest graph data.
This section helps you understand how your server is using resources over time.
Step #5 - View Database Details in Access Details:
Open Access details to manage Database from the left-side application menu.
This section shows the database option for your application on Cloudways Velocity.
You can view and copy:
DB Name — the database name used by your application.
Username — the database username.
Password — the password used to connect to the database.
Click the copy icon beside each field to copy the value.
You can either select PostgreSQL or Supabase for your Database. Learn how to do connect them by clicking this link.
You can also click Launch Database Manager to open the database manager and access your database.
Note:
Keep your database password private. Do not share it publicly or add it to public code repositories.
Once Database is connected, your screen will show the following:
Step #6 - Manage Backup Settings:
From the left-side application menu, click Backup & Restore.
The Backup and Restore page lets you create on-demand backups of your application data, files, and databases, or restore your data at any time.
Take a Backup
In the Backup section, you can perform an on-demand backup of your application (files and database).
This option is useful if you want to back up the application before making any changes.
Click Take Backup Now to create the backup immediately.
Restore Your Application
Go to Backup & Restore from the left-side application menu.
In the Restore section, select one of the available backups from the dropdown menu. You can restore either part of your application or the complete application in one go.
After selecting a backup, click Restore Application Now.
A backup is a saved copy of your application files and database. You can use it to recover your application if something goes wrong.
Step #7 - View and Manage Deployments:
In Deployment Management, open the Deployments tab. This section shows your deployment history.
You can view:
Author — the user who deployed the app.
Branch — the Git branch used.
Commit — the code version deployed.
Type — whether the deployment was manual or automatic.
Time — when the deployment happened.
Status — whether the deployment succeeded or failed.
You can also:
Turn Auto-deployment on or off.
Click Redeploy to deploy the application again.
Use the three-dot menu to View Details or Redeploy a specific deployment.
Auto-deployment means Cloudways can deploy the app automatically when new changes are pushed to the connected Git repository.
Manage Deployment Settings
Open Deployment Management from the left-side menu.
Go to the Settings tab.
This section allows you to manage how your application on Cloudways Velocity is built and deployed from your connected Git repository.
You can review or update:
Framework Preset — the framework used by your application.
Branch — the Git branch used for deployment.
Node Version — the Velocity version used by the application.
Root Directory — the folder where your application code is located.
Package Manager — the tool used to install application dependencies, such as Yarn.
Entry File — the main file that starts your application, such as app.js.
Click Save & Redeploy to save changes and redeploy the application. Click Save if you only want to save the changes.
You can also click Add Variable to add environment variables. Open the Environment Variables by clicking on the side bar menu.
Environment variables are secure values used by your application during build time or runtime, such as API keys or app settings.
Step #8 - Run Disk Cleanup:
From the application Overview page, click the server name (for example, NodeJS) at the top of the page. Under Servers, select your server to open the Server Overview page.
From the left-side server menu, click Settings and open the Optimization tab.
This section helps you clean unnecessary files and free up disk space.
You can use Disk Cleanup to remove temporary files that are no longer needed by your applications.
You can also select custom cleanup options under Custom Cleanup Options, such as:
Remove archived files from the logs folder for all applications.
Remove archived files from the /var/log folder.
Click Run Cleanup to start the cleanup manually.
You can also enable the Automatic Disk Cleanup toggle to let Cloudways run cleanup automatically based on the saved options.
Click Save Changes after updating your cleanup settings.
Schedule Server Maintenance
From the left-side server menu, click Settings.
Go to the Maintenance tab.
This section lets you schedule server maintenance at a preferred day and time.
You can choose:
Select Day: the day when maintenance should run.
Select Time: the time (in UTC) when maintenance should run.
Click Save after selecting the day and time.
Server maintenance is a planned activity that helps improve server security and stability. By default, maintenance is performed during the window of 05:00 to 06:00 UTC, which you can change to a time convenient for your business operations.
During this time, you may notice a short service interruption.
That’s it! We hope this article was useful.