Introduction: Your VPS Is Powerful — But Not Problem-Proof

Virtual Private Servers (VPS) offer incredible power and flexibility, but like any technology, they’re not immune to problems. From unexpected downtime to CPU overload, knowing how to troubleshoot common VPS issues can save your business from serious headaches (and lost traffic).

In this hands-on guide, we’ll walk you through the most common VPS problems — and how to fix them fast. No advanced Linux wizardry required. Just practical tips, useful commands, and solutions that actually work.

Problem #1: High CPU Usage / Spikes

Symptoms:

• Sluggish website or app performance
• SSH login delays or failures
• VPS dashboard showing 100% CPU

How to Diagnose:

top
htop
sudo tail -n 100 /var/log/syslog

️ How to Fix:

• Kill rogue processes: kill -9 [PID]
• Restart services: systemctl restart apache2
• Block bad bots using .htaccess or firewall
• Optimize cron jobs and PHP processes

Pro Tip: Use Netdata or Glances for real-time monitoring.

⚠️ Problem #2: Unexpected Downtime

Symptoms:

• Website is inaccessible
• Ping to IP address fails
• No SSH or control panel access

✅ Checklist:

️ Common Fixes:

• Restart failed services
• Investigate system logs
• Reboot in recovery if needed
• Contact provider for network-level issues

Pro Tip: Use UptimeRobot to get downtime alerts instantly.

Problem #3: SSH Login Errors

Symptoms:

• Connection refused
• Permission denied
• Timeouts or hangs

Common Causes:

• Incorrect IP or port
• SSH service not running
• Firewall blocking your IP

Fix Steps:

• Confirm SSH port: ssh -p 22 user@ip
• Restart SSH: systemctl restart ssh
• Unban IP from fail2ban: fail2ban-client set sshd unbanip YOUR.IP
• Check logs: cat /var/log/auth.log

Pro Tip: Use SSH key-based authentication for secure, password-less login.

Problem #4: Disk Space Full

Symptoms:

• No space left on device
• Website errors or app crashes

How to Check:

df -h
du -ahx / | sort -rh | head -20

️ Fix Steps:

• Delete old logs: rm -rf /var/log/*.gz
• Clean APT cache: apt clean
• Remove abandoned backups or media files
• Upgrade disk plan if needed

Problem #5: Web Server Not Responding

Symptoms:

• 500 internal server error
• Site won’t load or times out

First Checks:

systemctl status apache2
systemctl restart apache2
tail -n 100 /var/log/apache2/error.log
ufw status

Pro Tip: Restart PHP-FPM if you’re using dynamic scripts:

systemctl restart php8.1-fpm

Problem #6: MySQL or MariaDB Crashing

Fix Checklist:

systemctl status mysql
systemctl restart mysql
cat /var/log/mysql/error.log
mysqlcheck -u root -p --auto-repair --all-databases

Pro Tip: Consider switching to MariaDB for better performance.

VPS Maintenance Tools

VPS Troubleshooting Cheat Sheet