All Collections
Administering Server and Website
Upscaling Server
Guide to Scale Servers on the Cloudways Platform
Guide to Scale Servers on the Cloudways Platform

Learn how you can scale servers on the Cloudways Platform with more hardware features.

Cloudways Product avatar
Written by Cloudways Product
Updated over a week ago

Quick Question!

Did you know you can leverage automated scaling through Cloudways Autonomous for WordPress?

Table of Contents

Important

Effective 2nd May 2023, Vultr and Linode cloud services are no longer available for new customers on our platform.

Upgrading your server is not a problem at Cloudways, as we give you complete choice and freedom to increase your server’s hardware resources at a glance. Our infrastructure is built to offer greater flexibility to scale up any server vertically.

Vertical Scaling is also referred to as scale-up. It involves adding more computing power (CPU, Memory, and Storage) to an existing server within the region it had been created.

Why and When to Scale Up a Server?

Vertical Scaling is done to increase your current machine’s overall capacity and performance. It is a cost-effective solution and a smart approach as all your data and applications are retained, and you still use the same server with more muscles.

If you require more performance as computational power becomes a bottleneck or your CPU and Memory are reaching the maximum thresholds, then vertical scaling is a suitable option. This will make your server more powerful in managing heavy traffic and keeping your business always online.

The process of scaling up your DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr server is the same and slightly different from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Which server are you trying to scale up?

Scale Up Your DigitalOcean/Linode/Vultr Server

Please note that DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr only allow increasing server sizes such as CPU, Memory, and Storage all at once. If you have a DigitalOcean server and all you need is more storage space, you can also opt for DigitalOcean Block Storage instead of scaling up your server.

We are scaling up a DigitalOcean server in this example, but the process is the same if you use Linode or Vultr.

Important

  • The server scaling is permanent, which means you cannot revert once you have increased the server size. You will need to clone your server to scale down.

  • We recommend taking on-demand server backup before doing any scaling operation on your server; this will ensure you have a good restore point if you need to restore your applications’ previous versions.

  • The scaling operation will require taking your server offline while resources are being allocated to your server. The process should be lean and swift, yet it is good practice to scale during off-peak hours to minimize your website’s downtime effect.

  • Vultr High Frequency Instances – Due to cloud provider limitations, you can not scale the Standard Vultr machine to a High Frequency machine; you will need to clone your server.

Step #1 — Navigate to Vertical Scaling

Log in to your Cloudways Platform using your email address and password.

  1. From the top menu bar, open Servers.

  2. Then, choose your desired server to scale up.

    Classic Interface

    New Interface

  3. Under Server Management, select Vertical Scaling.

    Classic Interface

    New Interface

Step #2 — Select the Right Server Size

  1. Under Server Size, hover over different server sizes to get more information. Once decided, you can select that server size and see the hourly and monthly charges below.

  2. Finally, click Scale Now.

    Classic Interface

    New Interface

  3. You will be prompted with some warnings about the scaling process. Once you are ready, you can click Proceed.

    Classic Interface

It may take a few minutes to get your server up and running again with additional computing power.

Scale Up Your AWS/GCP Server

Please note that AWS and GCP allow increasing server sizes, such as CPU and Memory, together, and you can also scale down your server size (CPU & RAM) when you do not need a bigger instance.

You have three disks attached to your server:

  1. A disk reserved for application files (Expandable)

  2. A disk reserved for database storage (Expandable)

  3. A disk reserved for OS requirements (Fixed Size)

While you can scale up the server’s disks for web application files and database requirements together with CPU and RAM, the disk reserved for OS requirements is fixed at 25GB and cannot be used for any other requirements.

We are scaling up an AWS server in this example, but the process is the same if you use GCP.

Important

  • Storage scaling is permanent, which means you cannot revert once you have increased the disk size. You will need to clone your server to scale down your storage space.

  • We recommend taking an on-demand server backup before doing any scaling operation on your server; this will ensure you have a good restore point if you need to restore your applications’ previous versions.

  • The scaling operation will require taking your server offline while resources are being allocated to your server. The process should be lean and swift, yet it is good practice to scale during off-peak hours to minimize your website’s downtime effect.

Step #1 — Navigate to Vertical Scaling

Log in to your Cloudways Platform using your email address and password.

  1. From the top menu bar, open Servers.

  2. Then, choose your desired server to scale up.

    Classic Interface

  3. Under Server Management, select Vertical Scaling.

    Classic Interface

Step #2 — Select the Right Server Size

  1. Under Server Size, hover over different server sizes to get more information. Once decided, you can select that server size and see the hourly and monthly charges below.

  2. Finally, click Scale Now.

    Classic Interface

  3. You will be prompted with some warnings about the scaling process. Once you are ready, you can click Proceed.

    Classic Interface

  4. If you want to increase disk space for application files and databases, you can switch to Disk Size for Application and Disk Size for Database tab to increase the disk space.

  5. Once done, click Scale Now.

    Classic Interface

It may take a few minutes to get your server up and running again with additional computing power.

That’s it! We hope this article was helpful. If you need any help, then feel free to search your query on Cloudways Support Center or contact us via chat (Need a Hand > Send us a Message). Alternatively, you can also create a support ticket.


Cloudways makes scaling a server very easy. Choose our WordPress hosting servers to scale anytime according to your needs.

Did this answer your question?