It is important to keep track of your hosting account’s resource usage. Whether you're on a shared, VPS, or dedicated hosting plan, monitoring resources like CPU, RAM, bandwidth, and I/O helps prevent slowdowns, avoid overage fees, and identify potential security threats. This guide explains how to monitor and interpret your resource usage through cPanel, WHM, and CloudLinux tools.

Why Monitoring Resource Usage Is Important

• Prevent Website Downtime
  High CPU or memory usage can cause websites to load slowly or become inaccessible.

• Optimize Website Performance
  Identifying resource-heavy plugins, scripts, or cron jobs helps improve load times.

• Avoid Overage Fees or Suspension
  Some hosting plans have resource limits—exceeding them could result in throttling or account suspension.

• Detect Security Issues Early
  Sudden spikes in resource use may signal malware, brute-force attacks, or other security threats.

How to Monitor Resource Usage in cPanel (Shared or Cloud Hosting)

Step 1: Log in to your cPanel account.

Step 2: Navigate to Metrics and click on Resource Usage or CPU and Concurrent Connection Usage (depending on your host's configuration).

Step 3: Review the Current Usage summary. This typically includes:

• CPU Usage

• Memory (RAM) Usage

• Input/Output (I/O) Usage

• Number of Processes

• Entry Processes or Concurrent Connections

Step 4: Click Details to view historical usage graphs or time-specific spikes.

•  This will help you spot patterns, such as traffic surges or inefficient scripts.

How to Monitor Resource Usage in WHM (For VPS or Dedicated Hosting)

If you’re managing a VPS or dedicated server, you’ll use WHM (Web Host Manager):

Step 1: Log in to WHM as the root user.

Step 2: Go to Server Status > Server Information

• Here you can monitor live CPU load, memory usage, and server uptime.

Step 3: Use Process Manager

• This shows all currently running processes and the resources they're using. You can kill processes that are consuming too many resources.

Step 4: Check Apache Status

• Useful for seeing how many active connections your web server is handling and identifying traffic spikes.

How to Monitor Resource Usage with CloudLinux (on Shared or Cloud Hosting)

Many shared hosting providers use CloudLinux to isolate users and set resource limits.

Step 1: Log into cPanel.

Step 2: Under the Metrics section, click Resource Usage (CloudLinux-specific).

Step 3: You'll see:

• Current and historical usage for CPU, memory, I/O, and number of processes.

• Whether your account has reached any resource limits (these are usually color-coded).

Step 4: Analyze the "Faults" section to understand what resource limits have been exceeded and when.

Tip: If you're frequently hitting limits, consider optimizing your website or upgrading your hosting plan.

Additional Tips for Managing Resource Usage

• Optimize your website: Use caching plugins, image compression, and remove unnecessary scripts.

• Update software: Outdated CMS or plugins can be resource-heavy or contain vulnerabilities.

• Reduce cron job frequency: Set automated tasks (like backups or scans) to run during off-peak hours.

• Upgrade hosting: If your site is growing, you may need a higher-tier hosting plan with more resources.

• Use a CDN: Offload static files to a Content Delivery Network to reduce server strain.