When a server is nearly full

Every server has a limit on how many sites it holds (see Which size?), but sites differ a lot: one store with a big page builder can need as much as several small sites. So we also watch how much room the server’s sites actually use, and tell you before it runs out.

When a server is nearly full, you get an email, and the server’s page shows Resources on this server are nearly full, with what’s short and which sites use the most.

What can be nearly full

PHP’s code cache. PHP keeps every site’s code prepared and ready to run in memory. When there’s no room left, code is prepared again on each visit, so pages get slower and busy moments hit harder. It fills up as sites, plugins and themes are added, and stays full: it doesn’t empty itself when traffic drops.

PHP’s memory. Each server sets aside memory for its sites’ PHP. When the sites’ busiest moments use nearly all of it, the next busy moment can make every site on the server wait.

Your sites still work while the server is nearly full. It usually follows adding a site or a large plugin or theme.

Making room

1. Run Check and optimize. It looks at how the server was used this week and suggests settings that fit it better, often a bigger code cache. Most of the time that’s enough.
2. Move a site to another server, if you have one with room: from the site’s Settings tab, under Server. The site’s domain keeps working while it moves.
3. Move to a larger server: from the server’s Settings tab, under Server size.

Check and optimize tells you which of these fits when settings alone can’t make enough room.

Seeing it over time

The server’s Monitoring tab has graphs of PHP’s memory and its code cache, with each site’s share, so you can see what changed and when.