The Monitoring section in Cloudways Velocity helps you understand how your application is using its allocated resources and how requests are reaching it.
You can use this section to review:
CPU, RAM, disk, and bandwidth usage.
Historical resource-consumption graphs.
Incoming IP, bot, and URL requests.
HTTP response status codes.
Running cron processes.
Application disk usage.
Access, error, and runtime logs.
Regular monitoring can help you identify unusual traffic, resource limitations, application errors, slow processes, and other issues that may affect your application’s availability or performance.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure that:
You have an active Cloudways Velocity application.
You can access the Cloudways Platform.
Your application has received enough traffic or performed enough activity to generate monitoring data.
Note:
Some monitoring screens may display No Data Available when the application is new, inactive, or has not generated activity during the selected period.
Monitor Your Cloudways Velocity Hosting Application
The Cloudways Velocity Monitoring section provides a central location for reviewing application resources, traffic, scheduled processes, disk consumption, and logs.
By regularly reviewing these metrics, you can identify unusual activity, investigate application errors, understand resource requirements, and take action before an issue significantly affects your application.
Access the Velocity Monitoring Section
Log in to the Cloudways Platform.
From the left navigation menu, select Velocity.
Select My Applications.
Locate and select the application you want to monitor.
From the application management menu, select Monitoring.
The Monitoring section is divided into three main areas:
Overview
Analytics
Logs
Monitor the Application Resource Overview
Navigate to: Velocity Application → Monitoring → Overview
The Overview page provides a quick summary of the application’s current resource usage.
Summary
Select the Summary tab to review the following information.
RAM Usage
RAM, also called memory, temporarily stores the information and processes required by your running application.
The RAM Usage section shows:
The amount of RAM currently being used.
The total RAM available to the application.
Consistently high RAM usage may indicate that the application is processing too many requests, storing too much data in memory, or running resource-intensive processes.
CPU Usage
CPU usage shows how much processing capacity the application is currently using.
High CPU usage can occur during:
Increased application traffic.
Complex calculations.
Application builds or deployments.
Long-running scripts.
Inefficient application code.
A temporary increase is usually normal. However, consistently high CPU usage may indicate that the application requires optimization or additional resources.
Disk Usage
Disk usage shows how much of the available storage is currently occupied.
Storage may be consumed by:
Application files.
Uploaded content.
Build files.
Dependencies.
Databases.
Cache files.
Application logs.
Monitor disk usage regularly to prevent the application from running out of storage.
Bandwidth Usage
Bandwidth usage shows the amount of data transferred by the application during the current billing or reporting period.
Bandwidth is consumed when users, services, or bots download content from or send data to your application.
Select Refresh to retrieve the latest available resource information.
View Detailed Resource Graphs
Navigate to: Velocity Application → Monitoring → Overview → Details
The Details tab displays resource data in graph form. It is useful for identifying changes, spikes, and repeated usage patterns over time.
Select a Resource Metric
Use the first dropdown menu to choose the resource metric you want to review. The available options may include CPU, memory, disk, or other supported application metrics.
For example, the Idle CPU metric shows the percentage of CPU capacity that is not currently being used.
A higher Idle CPU value means more CPU capacity is available. A lower value means the application is using more processing capacity.
Select a Time Period
Use the time-period dropdown to choose the monitoring interval, such as:
One hour.
Several hours.
One day.
Another available period.
The graph updates according to the selected metric and period.
Select Refresh to load the latest monitoring data.
Tip:
Review resource graphs before and after a deployment, campaign, traffic increase, or application update. This can help you understand how the change affected resource usage.
Review Application Traffic Analytics
Navigate to: Velocity Application → Monitoring → Analytics → Traffic
The Traffic section provides information about requests received by your application.
It contains the following tabs:
IP Requests
Bot Traffic
URL Requests
Status Codes
Bandwidth
Use the time-period dropdown on each tab to select the reporting interval. Select Refresh to retrieve the latest data.
View IP Requests
Select the IP Requests tab. This section displays the IP addresses that sent the highest number of requests to your application.
The table includes:
Top IP Addresses
An IP address is a numerical address used to identify a device or service communicating over a network.
This column shows the IP addresses sending requests to the application.
Request Count
The request count shows how many requests each IP address sent during the selected period.
Use this information to identify:
Frequently visiting clients.
Monitoring services.
Search engine crawlers.
Repeated or unusual request activity.
Potentially abusive traffic.
Important:
A high request count does not automatically mean that an IP address is harmful. Review the request pattern and application logs before taking action.
View Bot Traffic
Select the Bot Traffic tab.
A bot is an automated program that visits or sends requests to an application. Bots may include search engine crawlers, monitoring systems, automation tools, or unwanted scanners.
The Bot Traffic table includes:
Bots
This column identifies the detected bot or automated requester.
Request Count
This column shows the number of requests generated by the bot during the selected period.
Review this section to understand how much of your application traffic is generated by automated services rather than human visitors.
View URL Requests
Select the URL Requests tab.
This section displays the application URLs receiving the highest number of requests.
A URL is the web address of a page, file, endpoint, or application route.
The table includes:
URLs
This column lists the most frequently requested application URLs or routes.
Request Count
This column shows how many requests each URL received during the selected period.
This information can help you identify:
Popular pages or API routes.
Frequently accessed files.
Unexpected request targets.
Routes receiving unusually high traffic.
Endpoints that may require performance optimization.
View HTTP Status Codes
Select the Status Codes tab.
An HTTP status code is a three-digit response returned by the application after receiving a request.
It indicates whether the request was successful or whether an error occurred.
The table includes:
Status Codes
This column displays the HTTP response codes generated by the application.
Common status-code groups include:
2xx: The request was completed successfully.
3xx: The request was redirected to another location.
4xx: The request could not be completed because of a client-side issue.
5xx: The application or server encountered an error while processing the request.
Request Count
This column shows how many times each status code was returned during the selected period.
A high number of 4xx or 5xx responses may require further investigation through the application logs.
Examples
200: The request was successful.
301 or 302: The request was redirected.
404: The requested page or resource was not found.
500: The application encountered an internal error.
503: The application or service was temporarily unavailable.
View Bandwidth Consumption
Select the Bandwidth tab.
This section shows which URLs consumed the most bandwidth during the selected period.
The table includes:
URLs
This column lists the application URLs or resources that transferred data.
Bandwidth
This column shows the amount of data transferred by each URL.
High bandwidth consumption may be caused by:
Large images or media files.
File downloads.
Large API responses.
High visitor traffic.
Automated requests.
Unoptimized static resources.
Use this data to identify routes or files that may benefit from compression, caching, a content delivery network, or other performance improvements.
Note:
Monitoring data may vary after disk optimization or other application maintenance activities.
Monitor Running Cron Processes
Navigate to: Velocity Application → Monitoring → Analytics → Running Crons
A cron job is a scheduled command or task that runs automatically at a defined time or interval.
The Running Crons page displays cron processes that are currently executing.
The table includes:
Cron
Shows the command or scheduled process that is currently running.
CPU%
Shows the percentage of CPU capacity being used by the cron process.
Memory%
Shows the percentage of memory being used by the cron process.
Duration in Seconds
Shows how long the cron process has been running.
This section can help you identify cron jobs that:
Use excessive CPU or memory.
Take longer than expected to complete.
Continue running unexpectedly.
Affect the performance of the application.
Select Refresh to retrieve the latest running-process information.
Note:
If no cron process is running when the page is opened, the page displays No Data Available.
Monitor Application Disk Usage
Navigate to: Velocity Application → Monitoring → Analytics → Disk Usage
The Disk Usage section helps you understand how the application is consuming its allocated storage.
It contains two tabs:
Summary
Details
View the Disk Usage Summary
Select the Summary tab.
The Summary tab provides a current overview of disk usage. Depending on the available data, it may show the directories, application files, or database tables consuming storage.
Use this information to identify which areas of the application are using the most disk space.
The platform may require a few moments to retrieve real-time disk usage information.
View Disk Usage Details
Select the Details tab.
The Details tab displays a historical graph of application disk-space consumption.
Use the Show graph from dropdown to select a period, such as the previous seven days.
The graph helps you understand whether disk usage is:
Stable.
Increasing gradually.
Increasing unexpectedly.
Reduced after file removal or optimization.
Select Refresh to retrieve the latest information.
Tip:
A continuous increase in disk usage may be caused by application logs, uploaded files, build artifacts, temporary data, cache files, or database growth.
Review Application Logs
Navigate to: Velocity Application → Monitoring → Logs
Logs are records generated by the application and its supporting services. They can help you understand incoming requests, errors, and application behavior.
The Logs section contains:
Access Logs
Error Logs
Runtime Logs
Important:
Log timestamps are displayed in Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC. Your local time may differ from the displayed log time. Account for this difference when investigating an event.
View Access Logs
Navigate to: Velocity Application → Monitoring → Logs → Access Logs
Access logs contain information about requests received by the application.
Depending on the request, an access-log entry may include:
Request date and time.
Visitor or requester IP address.
Requested URL.
Request method.
HTTP status code.
Browser or user-agent information.
Use access logs to investigate:
Which pages or endpoints were requested.
When a request reached the application.
Which IP address sent the request.
Whether the application returned a successful or unsuccessful response.
You can use the available controls to:
Filter log entries.
Search within the displayed logs.
Refresh the results.
The page displays the most recent log entries. For complete logs, use the application’s SSH or SFTP access where applicable.
View Error Logs
Navigate to: Velocity Application → Monitoring → Logs → Error Logs
Error logs contain errors and warnings recorded by the application or its configured services.
They can help identify:
Application failures.
Invalid configurations.
Missing dependencies.
Failed requests.
Unhandled exceptions.
Service or connection issues.
Use the search control to locate a specific error, message, route, or time. Select Refresh to retrieve the latest log entries.
Tip:
When troubleshooting an issue, note the exact time it occurred and search for log entries recorded around that time.
View Runtime Logs
Navigate to: Velocity Application → Monitoring → Logs → Runtime Logs
Runtime logs provide a current record of events and messages generated while the application is running.
They help you:
Monitor normal application activity.
Review process output.
Identify runtime failures.
Follow application execution.
Diagnose application behavior.
Runtime Logs contains two tabs:
Output
Error
Review Runtime Output Logs
Select the Output tab.
Output logs contain informational messages generated during normal application activity.
They may include:
Successful startup messages.
Completed application tasks.
Request-processing messages.
Application-generated informational output.
General process updates.
Select Refresh to retrieve the latest output messages.
Review Runtime Error Logs
Select the Error tab.
Runtime error logs contain failures, exceptions, and unexpected issues generated while the application is running.
Use this tab to investigate:
Application crashes.
Unhandled exceptions.
Failed processes.
Module or dependency errors.
Runtime configuration problems.
Unexpected application behavior.
Select Refresh to retrieve the latest error messages.
Monitoring Best Practices
Review the Monitoring section regularly instead of waiting for an application failure.
Compare resource usage during normal and high-traffic periods.
This gives you a baseline for identifying unusual activity.
Check CPU and RAM graphs after deployments or code changes. A sudden increase may indicate that the new version requires more resources.
Review status codes and error logs together. A rise in 5xx status codes usually requires investigation in the error or runtime logs.
Monitor running cron processes. Long-running or overlapping cron jobs may consume resources and affect application performance.
Review disk usage over time. Continuous growth may indicate accumulated logs, build files, cache, uploaded content, or database records.
Use timestamps when troubleshooting. Match the time of the reported issue with the corresponding access, error, and runtime log entries.
Avoid sharing sensitive log information publicly. Logs may contain IP addresses, URLs, request details, internal paths, or application data.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the Monitoring section show no data?
The application may be new, inactive, or may not have generated activity during the selected period. Select a longer reporting period and refresh the page after the application receives traffic.
Why does the page show an invalid date?
This may appear when no monitoring records are available for the selected period or when the platform has not yet received enough data to create the report. Select another time period and refresh the page.
How frequently is monitoring data updated?
Some values are retrieved when you open or refresh the page. Other graphs and analytics depend on collected historical data and may not update immediately.
What should I do if CPU usage remains high?
Review the traffic analytics, running cron processes, and application logs. Check for traffic spikes, long-running tasks, application errors, or inefficient code. Consider application optimization or a larger plan when usage remains high under normal conditions.
What should I do if RAM usage remains high?
Review running processes and runtime logs. Check whether the application stores excessive information in memory, processes large requests, or runs multiple tasks simultaneously.
What is the difference between error logs and runtime error logs?
Error logs provide broader information about issues recorded for the application and its request handling. Runtime error logs focus on errors generated by the running application process.
Why are the log times different from my local time?
Cloudways displays logs in UTC. Convert the UTC timestamp to your local time when investigating an event.
Can I view complete historical logs from this section?
The platform displays a limited number of recent log entries. Use SSH or SFTP access where supported to review complete log files.
That's it! We hope this article was useful.