Overview
The following describes a few ways you can prevent excessive disk usage on your hosting plan and ensure your server and website continue to function fast and efficiently.
Website backup solutions
The following are examples of backup solutions you could use.
WordPress backups: The UpdraftPlus WordPress plugin includes options to copy your backup data to a third-party server (such as DreamObjects), ensuring your backups are not stored locally.
Manual website backups: The following articles walk you through creating and downloading backups:
Web server backups
When creating and storing backups, the goal is always to ensure they remain redundant. For this reason, you should never store backups on your web server for the following reasons:
- DreamHost does its best to prevent data loss on all servers. However, in the unlikely event that something happened to your server, the backups stored in the same place as your live site could be impacted.
- If your website is ever compromised, backups stored locally could also be exposed to security exploits that the live site is affected by.
Website image optimization and cleanup
An optimized website performs faster and maintains low disk usage. View the following articles for further information:
Log file optimization
DreamHost maintains your website logs on set schedules. However, applications you've installed on your site may not be configured in a way that ensures they're kept to a usable size. The easiest way to do this is via a cron job using logrotate. For example, you could use the following syntax when creating your cron job:
Make sure to change username to your website user and /app/log_file to the path of your specific application's log file.
/usr/sbin/logrotate /home/username/app/log_file
See the Create a cron job article for instructions on creating a cron job in the panel.
Block storage
Block storage is a cloud-based storage service that is specifically designed for storing large amounts of data. The following are examples of block storage services.
DreamObjects: DreamObjects is DreamHost's cloud storage service, which can store anything from static data for your website to website backups. You can access DreamObjects in the DreamHost panel, programmatically via standard S3 APIs, or using any application with S3 connectivity support.
Other alternatives: Other popular block storage options include:
Third-party media storage alternatives: Alternatives to block storage include providers who are already using similar mass storage technologies. Websites such as YouTube, Vimeo, and SoundCloud are designed around the specific need to host video and audio files, providing a variety of ways to embed or link to the content you've uploaded to those platforms.
Dedicated Server Hosting
If you need a large amount of local disk space, a DreamHost Dedicated Server may be the best solution. Various disk and RAM options are available, as well as expandability options in case you need to upgrade later.