How to Upgrade or Downgrade Your VPS Plan

As your sites grow, you can move your VPS to a plan with more CPU cores, memory and storage without moving your data or changing your IP address. This guide covers how to do it, what happens during the change, and what to check afterwards.

Signs it's time to upgrade

The load average stays above your number of CPU cores during busy hours.
Available memory is low and the server keeps using swap, or processes get killed for lack of memory.
The disk is regularly more than 80% full even after cleaning up.
Pages are slow at peak times but fine at night.

See How to Monitor CPU, RAM and Disk on Your VPS to check these numbers.

How to upgrade

Log in to your FimuroHost client area.
Go to Services and select your VPS.
Click Upgrade/Downgrade.
Choose the new plan (for example from 2 cores to 4 cores). The amount due for the change is shown before you confirm.
Complete checkout and pay the invoice using one of the payment methods shown on it.

The upgrade is applied once the invoice is paid. A reboot of the VPS is needed for the new resources to take effect, so expect a few minutes of downtime. If you need the reboot at a particular time, mention it in a ticket, or reboot yourself with sudo reboot once the change is applied.

Take a fresh backup before any plan change, just in case.

After the upgrade: check the new resources

nproc        # CPU cores
free -h      # memory
df -h /      # disk space of the main file system
lsblk        # disk and partition sizes

If lsblk shows a bigger disk but df -h still shows the old size, the file system needs to be expanded. Most cloud images do this automatically on boot. If yours didn't, and your disk is /dev/vda with the root file system on partition 1 (check the names in lsblk first):

# install the growpart tool
sudo apt install -y cloud-guest-utils        # Ubuntu / Debian
sudo dnf install -y cloud-utils-growpart     # AlmaLinux / Rocky

sudo growpart /dev/vda 1

# then grow the file system (check the type with: df -T /)
sudo resize2fs /dev/vda1     # ext4
sudo xfs_growfs /            # xfs

If your layout looks different (for example LVM) or you are not sure, stop and open a support ticket before running these commands.

Make use of the extra resources

Some software is sized for the old plan and won't use the new capacity until you tell it to:

PHP-FPM: raise pm.max_children in the pool file (/etc/php/8.3/fpm/pool.d/www.conf or /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf). A rough guide is available RAM for PHP divided by the average PHP process size (often 50–80 MB).
MariaDB: innodb_buffer_pool_size can often be set to 25–50% of RAM on a server that also runs the web stack.
Node.js with PM2: increase instances to use more cores.
Swap: with more RAM you may need less swap.

Restart each service after changing its settings.

Downgrading

You can request a smaller plan the same way through Upgrade/Downgrade. However, a disk can't normally be shrunk safely, so a downgrade to a plan with less storage may not be possible directly. If the option is not offered or you're unsure, open a support ticket first. The usual alternative is to order the smaller VPS, move your sites across, and cancel the old one.

Switching between Unmanaged and Managed

Unmanaged and Managed VPS are different services, so you can't switch between them with Upgrade/Downgrade. Your websites need to be migrated to a new VPS of the other type. Ask our Sales team for help planning it; see also Managed vs Unmanaged VPS.

FAQ

Will my IP address change?

No, an upgrade keeps the same VPS and IP address.

Will my data be kept?

Yes. An upgrade changes the resources, not the contents of the disk. We still recommend a backup beforehand.

How is it billed?

The client area calculates the amount for the rest of your current billing period and shows it before you confirm. Future renewals use the new plan's price. See our pricing page.

Need help?

If something about the VPS itself is not working (it won't start, you can't reach it, or you need console access, an upgrade or a reinstall), open a support ticket from your client area or message us on WhatsApp at 01818160926. Include your VPS IP address and what you have already tried so we can help faster.

FimuroHost Team

Technical Writer