Overview
The Servers & Usage page in the panel displays CPU, RAM, and Storage usage for your hosting plan through visual graphs, helping you monitor server activity and understand how hosting resources are used over time..
Background
The Servers & Usage page provides an overview of resource activity for your Web hosting server. It displays CPU, RAM, and Storage usage through visual graphs, helping to monitor server activity and understand how hosting resources are being used over time.
Web Hosting plans operate on shared infrastructure. While resources such as CPU and RAM are shared across multiple accounts, the graphs shown on the Servers & Usage page display only the resource usage generated by your account.
DreamPress, Managed VPS, MySQL VPS, VPS, and Dedicated Server plans include their own resources. For these plans, the graphs show how much of your plan's resources are in use.
How do I view usage information?
The Servers & Usage page shows a summary of CPU, RAM, and Storage for each server on your account. To view the usage graphs for a server:
Navigate to the Servers & Usage page.
Next to the server, click the Manage button.
In the top-right corner, select Last day, Last week, or Last two weeks from the timeframe dropdown to update the graphs.
How do I read the usage graphs?
The Resource Monitoring section includes graphs for CPU, RAM, and Storage, allowing you to monitor how these resources are used.
What do the CPU and RAM graphs show?
The CPU and RAM graphs show how your server handles active processes and memory usage. For Web Hosting and DreamPress plans, the Servers & Usage page groups activity into three levels:
| Usage Level | Description |
|---|---|
| Low | Normal activity |
| Medium | Increased activity |
| High | Heavy activity |
These levels help quickly identify when the server is handling a higher workload.
Managed VPS, MySQL VPS, VPS, and Dedicated Server plans include a set amount of CPU, RAM, and storage, based on the plan you purchased. For these plans, the Servers & Usage page shows the resources included with your plan, and the graphs show your usage compared to those resources.
Short spikes are normal and often happen during traffic peaks, backups, or updates. Usage that stays high for several days is a sign that your site or application needs attention.
What are common causes of high activity?
High server activity can occur for several reasons. The most common include:
| Cause | Description |
|---|---|
| Increased website traffic | A spike in visitors can temporarily increase CPU or memory usage. You can review visitor activity on the Traffic page in the panel. Note: The Traffic page is available for all plans except VPS. |
| Background processes or scripts | Tasks such as scheduled jobs, plugins, or applications may generate additional server activity. Reviewing the Website Logs page can help identify processes contributing to increased usage. Note: The Logs page is available for all plans except VPS. |
| Outdated software or plugins | Older versions of CMS platforms, plugins, or themes may run inefficiently and consume more resources. Keeping the site updated helps improve performance and maintain security. |
For help improving site performance, visit the DreamHost Optimization guides.
How do I view storage usage?
The Storage graph shows how much disk space is used by files stored on the server. Storage usage is not displayed for VPS plans.
Some legacy hosting plans, including Shared Unlimited, do not have a defined storage limit. As a result, storage usage may be displayed differently in the panel.
For all other plans, the panel displays:
Total storage used
Storage limit for the plan
Percentage of storage used
These indicators help monitor how much storage is available for websites and files.
Storage usage is measured by disk space and by inodes. An inode is used for every file and folder on the server, so a large number of small files can add up even when disk space usage is low.
If storage usage increases or approaches the plan limit, you may want to review how disk space is being used. See the following articles for further information on managing files and reducing storage use:
For hosting plans, your site remains online if your storage usage goes over your plan's limit. However, new uploads, one-click installs, and other site functionality that writes to disk will fail until your usage is brought back under the limit.
