SiteHost

Upgrading a Virtual Server

If your server is not on a contract term (and most servers with us aren't) you can upgrade your plan or add disk space at any time. It's always a good idea to be have some excess resources over and above your 'standard' usage so that your server can handle a surprise increase in traffic or a more intensive workload. We may also ask you to upgrade your server if you are regularly using more resources than your plan includes (also known as bursting or excessive CPU cycles) so you don't impact other customers on the same hardware node.

All server upgrades are handled through the Upgrade tab on the server's management page in the SiteHost Control Panel.

Live Upgrades

In early 2024, we started migrating to a new virtualisation platform which enabled upgrading cores, memory, and disk space without requiring a reboot. We refer to this as a live upgrade because it allows you to scale up your plan without the impact of downtime.

A message will be displayed on the upgrade page if this feature is supported by your server.

Staged Upgrades

If your server isn't live upgradable, the changes will be applied during the next reboot. You can discard the changes before rebooting, if you want to skip the staged resource changes.

Disk Upgrades are Permanent

A key characteristic of our new new virtualisation platform is that increasing the size of your disk is a permanent change, and can't be reversed. If you think you might downgrade your plan in the future you should consider not applying the disk upgrade, or only applying some of the extra space after skipping the upgrade.

Important Notes

  • There are other options to select under the Individual Upgrades section, though these depend on the plan you are currently on. We usually only do incremental disk upgrades but there can be exceptions.
  • During the upgrade process, you may be requested to migrate your server if there are insufficient resources available on the hardware node. This will require shutting down the server for a few minutes (usually 5-15 minutes) while the migration takes place.
  • If the upgrades you are interested in are not available to you please reach out.