Fix Server Resource Limits and Throttling | OpsBlu Docs

Fix Server Resource Limits and Throttling

Diagnose and fix CPU, memory, and bandwidth constraints affecting website performance

What This Means

Resource limit issues occur when your server runs out of CPU, memory, disk space, or bandwidth. This causes slow performance, errors, or complete outages.

Impact

  • Slow page loads from CPU/memory constraints
  • 504 timeouts from exceeded processing limits
  • 503 errors from exhausted worker processes
  • Failed uploads from disk space issues
  • Traffic throttling from bandwidth limits

How to Diagnose

Check Current Usage

Linux:

# CPU and Memory
top
htop
free -h

# Disk space
df -h

# I/O stats
iostat -x 1

# Network usage
iftop
nethogs

Common Indicators

Resource Warning Signs
CPU Load average > CPU cores
Memory Swap usage increasing
Disk Usage > 85%
Bandwidth Throttled responses
Connections Connection refused errors

General Fixes

1. CPU Optimization

Identify CPU-intensive processes:

ps aux --sort=-%cpu | head -10

Solutions:

  • Optimize slow code paths
  • Add caching to reduce processing
  • Upgrade to faster CPU/more cores
  • Implement horizontal scaling

2. Memory Optimization

Check memory usage:

free -h
ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -10

Solutions:

  • Optimize application memory usage
  • Reduce worker process memory footprint
  • Add more RAM
  • Implement memory caching (Redis/Memcached)

PHP-FPM tuning:

pm = dynamic
pm.max_children = 50
pm.start_servers = 5
pm.min_spare_servers = 5
pm.max_spare_servers = 35

3. Disk Space Management

Find large files:

du -sh /* | sort -h
find / -type f -size +100M

Solutions:

  • Clean up log files
  • Remove old backups
  • Compress or archive old data
  • Increase disk size

4. Bandwidth Optimization

Reduce bandwidth usage:

  • Enable compression (gzip/brotli)
  • Optimize images
  • Use a CDN
  • Implement caching headers

5. Connection Limits

Check connection limits:

ulimit -n  # Max open files
ss -s      # Socket statistics

Increase limits:

# /etc/security/limits.conf
* soft nofile 65535
* hard nofile 65535

Scaling Strategies

Vertical Scaling (Scale Up)

  • Add more CPU cores
  • Increase RAM
  • Faster storage (SSD/NVMe)

Horizontal Scaling (Scale Out)

Auto-Scaling Rules

# Example auto-scaling policy
scaling_policy:
  min_instances: 2
  max_instances: 10
  scale_up:
    cpu_threshold: 80%
    duration: 5m
    add_instances: 2
  scale_down:
    cpu_threshold: 30%
    duration: 15m
    remove_instances: 1

Monitoring Setup

Set up alerts for:

  • CPU usage > 80% for 5 minutes
  • Memory usage > 85%
  • Disk usage > 80%
  • High load average
  • Swap usage increasing

Platform-Specific Considerations

Platform Resource Management
Shopify Managed by Shopify
WordPress Hosting-dependent
Squarespace Managed by Squarespace
VPS/Dedicated Full control
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