Advantages of VPS Server Partitions

So, you decided to find a hosting provider for your website? Then you, during your research, came upon the two most popular choices – shared hosting and VPS. Shared hosting is the less costly option, but there are plenty of providers who offer cheap VPS hosting too. So how exactly do these two types differ in the technical sense? Well, with shared hosting, your website will inhabit the same server as many others. So, if you receive high traffic, your page can start to load slowly and be unable to accommodate the visitor influx, as other websites use the same resources as you do. While on the other hand, VPS hosting, creates a virtual server that you and only you have full control of and can use all the resources when needed.

VPS partitions and why bother?

As your website grows and traffic increases, you will need to upgrade and optimize it. When you expand the disk space on your VPS, the first thing you need to do is add that disk space to a partition, for your OS to access and use it. Having more space is one thing but making partitions will also make your website run smoother, especially if you are using SSD addons for your virtual private server.

How to repartition Windows and Linux VPS?

Windows VPS and Linux VPS have different partitioning methods due to being different operating systems. This can get a little bit complicated at times, so here is a step-by-step guide on how to create a new server partition. Let us start off with the more difficult one – Linux:

1)      Install parted.

a)      Ubuntu: $ apt-get install parted

b)      CentOS: $  yum install parted

2)      Open the parted cli with the command parted /dev/vda

a)      Type p

b)      Type Fix

c)       Note the total size of the disk and the highest END value of the partitions.

d)      Run command unit GB mkpart primary ext4 (end value here) (total disk size here)

e)      Type q to quit the cli.

3)      Run cat /proc/partitions in order to get the new partitions name (vda4 in this example).

4)      Create partition mkfs.ext4 /dev/vda4

5)      Create a new mount point mkdir /backup

6)      Mount the partition mount /dev/vda4 /backup

7)      Edit file /etc/fstab/ and add new line for new mount /dev/vda3 /backup ext4 defaults 0 2

Now, onto the Windows partition:

1)      Navigate to Start, Administrative Tools, Computer Management.

2)      Go to Disk Management.

3)      Use Action>Rescan Disk, to see if there is free space available.

4)      Select New Simple Volume after right clicking the Unallocated space.

5)      Click Next.

6)      Choose the size of your partition and click Next.

7)      Choose a letter for the drive and click Next.

8)      Here it is advisable to format new partition with NTFS filesystem as it is better. Under Volume Label you can enter the partitions name.

9)      Make sure to check Perform Quick Format box and click Next.

10)   Review configuration and click Finish to complete.