The short answer is that GreenGeeks does not directly limit the number of simultaneous visitors.  

Instead of limiting visitors, each account’s assigned a finite amount of physical resources(CPU/MEM/IO), and each HTTP request takes a certain amount of resources to complete.

Additional factors like traffic patterns and visitor behavior can vary, impacting resource consumption.

Physical Resources

Each time a visitor accesses your website, the hosting server must process various tasks, such as serving web pages, reading the htaccess file, executing scripts, handling database queries, and more. 

These tasks require CPU, Memory, and Disk IO resources to complete, allocated from the fixed amount of resources assigned to the hosting account. 

Since physical resources get shared among the domains in the server itself, including addon domains, aliases & sub-domains, it’s possible for one site to be using all of the available resources for that account.

If your hosting account has insufficient resources to handle the number of requests, it may lead to slower response times or website downtime, including 508 errors. 

Resource Usage Monitor

You can monitor the resource usage on your account using the Resource Usage tool in cPanel, under the Metrics heading; this will show the resource usage over time, including any “faults” or errors. 

Optimization

Optimization is often the primary factor in determining how many simultaneous visitors the hosting account can support, as optimization allows more visitors to access your website without straining your hosting account’s resources.  

By optimizing your website, you can improve its overall performance and efficiency, thereby reducing the resource consumption required to serve each visitor. This allows your hosting account to accommodate a higher number of simultaneous visitors compared to the unoptimized site. 

Here are a few ways in which optimization can help:

1. Code optimization: Optimizing your website’s code involves streamlining and refining the underlying programming to make it more efficient. The code optimization process can include minimizing redundant code, optimizing database queries, and employing caching techniques. By reducing the complexity of your code, it will run faster and allow your hosting account to handle more visitors with the same allocated resources.
2. Image and file optimization: Large images and files can significantly slow down your website’s loading times and consume additional bandwidth. Images can be optimized via resizing, compression, or conversion to another format like WebP, resulting in significant savings without significant quality loss.
3. Caching mechanisms: Implementing mechanisms for server-side caching to store static versions of your web pages or frequently accessed data is critical to maximizing the number of visitors your account can support. Static server-side caches reduce the need to generate content dynamically for each visitor resulting in faster response times and lower CPU, MEM, and IO usage, allowing more visitors in total. 
4. Content delivery networks (CDNs): CDNs distribute your website’s static content across multiple servers worldwide, reducing the load on your hosting account’s server and improving the delivery speed for visitors in different locations. By offloading the delivery of static files to the CDN, your hosting account can focus its resources on dynamic content, enabling it to handle more visitors simultaneously.
5. Database optimization: If your website relies heavily on database interactions, in addition to caching, optimizing your database structure, indexing, and queries can significantly enhance performance. Efficiently accessing and retrieving database records reduces CPU and MEM usage overall.

It’s important to note that optimization alone has limits, and the resources allocated to your hosting account ultimately play a significant role in determining the maximum number of visitors it can support. 

Calculating Visitor Capacity

Monitor the resource usage of your website to get an idea of the visitor capacity. Aside from the built-in tools, third-party plugins like Query Monitor for WordPress can examine how each component impacts the overall site.

Keep an eye on CPU and memory usage during periods of high traffic to understand the average resources consumed per visitor.

Once you’ve determined approximately the amount of resources required for each visitor, it’s possible to do a rough calculation of the total number of visitors supported by the account. 

For example, if your hosting account has 2 GB of memory and you determine that your website uses approximately 100MB per visitor, you can calculate that 2GB / 100MB = ~20 Visitors.

Remember that this calculation provides an estimation based on average resource usage per visitor. Actual visitor capacity may vary depending on factors like traffic patterns, visitor behavior, and the efficiency of your website’s code.

Further Questions

If you have any further questions about how resources affect the number of visitors that can visit the site simultaneously, or how optimization can increase visitor capacity, please open a Support Ticket Request within your GreenGeeks Dashboard,  and the GreenGeeks Technical Support Team will be glad to assist you.

The post How Many Visitors Can My GreenGeeks Account Support? appeared first on GreenGeeks Support.

This database server upgrade is necessary to ensure the continued stability and security of the GreenGeeks network and your hosting account.

What will the upgrade process entail?

The MariaDB upgrade process will upgrade all instances of MariaDB on our network from version 10.3 to 10.5.

This update includes required security updates and releases necessary for the security and stability of databases.

How long will the upgrade process take?

We expect the software upgrade to be no more than 20 minutes per server.

During the upgrade period, the MariaDB/MySQL server will be inaccessible to ensure the continuity of the data.

Since the upgrade is at the server level, there won’t be any alternations to your existing databases or the data contained within.

When will the upgrade be complete?

All servers are scheduled to be upgraded by December 26, 2022.

Are there any significant changes from MariaDB 10.3 to 10.5?

MariaDB 10.5 includes some significant enhancements, including the addition of the ColumnStore storage engine and upgrades to overall InnoDB performance.

The majority of these changes are at the back-end server level and will not impact end-user websites.

More information on the new features, along with other changes and improvements, for MariaDB 10.5 can be on the MariaDB website.

MariaDB 10.4 Changes
MariaDB 10.5 Changes

How do I check the MySQL/MariaDB version?

To see the current MySQL/MariaDB version, access the Server Information page under the General Information section of your GreenGeeks cPanel.

The version information will be displayed next to the line for MySQL Version.

Can I opt out of this upgrade or request a specific MariaDB version?

Unfortunately not; unlike PHP versions, the MariaDB/MySQL version is a globally shared resource at the server level, and we cannot run different versions for each hosting account.

If you require a specific MariaDB or MySQL version for your websites, we invite you to consider the GreenGeeks Managed VPS platform. With a GreenGeeks Managed VPS, you have full administrative access to control your server to suit your needs, including custom MariaDB/MySQL versions and other software options otherwise unavailable in a shared environment.

Our Support team can assist with any questions about upgrading to a Managed VPS.

The post December 2022 MariaDB Upgrade – What You Need To Know appeared first on GreenGeeks Support.

If you ever need to connect to your hosting server via command line, you can do so in a couple of ways.

Note that “SSH,” “shell,” and “command line” all refer to the same method of connecting to the server.

If you’ve never used shell access before, it may have to be turned on for your account. Please open a support ticket in GreenGeeks and let us know that you would like shell access to be activated.

I am going to show you how to connect with both the PuTTY SSH program and the Windows command prompt (or Windows PowerShell). The result is the same, so which you use is a matter of preference.

You can use your domain name or the host name of the server your website lives on when making an SSH connection. In the examples presented here, we’re using the host name, so I’ll show you where to find it.

Locating your GreenGeeks Server Host Name

Log in to GreenGeeks and go to cPanel by clicking the “cPanel Login” button in the “Quick Server Login” section.

The cPanel URL contains your server information. Everything after https:// and before :2083 is the host name.

Making an SSH Connection With a Command Prompt

The quickest and easiest way to make a connection if you are using a Windows computer is to open up a command prompt.

Click the Windows icon and search for “Command Prompt.”

Click the Command Prompt App search result.

In the window that opens, type SSH followed by your username @ your host name. For example, my login would be ssh mjp@chi-node36.websitehostserver.net.

Using the domain name rather than the server host name, the login would be mjp@ggexample.com.

Hit the Enter key on your keyboard.

Type your password. Unless you’ve changed the password, it should be the FTP password in your account welcome email.

Hit the Enter key on your keyboard.

When you’re logged in, you’ll see your username at the beginning of the line, followed by @ and a portion of your server host name.

Now you can run commands.

To close the command line session, type “exit.”

Making an SSH Connection With the PuTTY SSH Program

Open PuTTY. In the “Session” category, enter your server host name (or your domain name) into the “Host Name” field.

Leave the default settings of “Connection Type” SSH and “Port” 22. If your default settings are different than what’s shown here, change them to SSH and port 22.

A window similar to the command prompt window will open.

At the “login as:” prompt, type your username and hit the Enter key on your keyboard.

At the password prompt, type your password and hit the Enter key on your keyboard.

When you’re logged in, you’ll see your username at the beginning of the line, followed by @ and a portion of your server host name.

Now you can run commands.

To close the PuTTY command line session, type “exit.”

The post How to Make an SSH Connection to Your GreenGeeks Server appeared first on GreenGeeks Support.

Note: as an alternative, web-based terminal access is also available in cPanel if you need to run a quick command or two.

Log in to GreenGeeks and go to cPanel by clicking the “cPanel Login” button in the “Quick Server Login” section.

In the “SECURITY” section, click the “SSH Access” link or icon.

Click the “Manage SSH Keys” button.

Generate SSH Keys

Click the “Generate a New Key” button.

The following entries are required to generate the key pair:

• Key Name – defaults to “id_rsa,” typically there is no need to change the default value.
• Key Password – use a strong password or passphrase.
• Key Type – should default to RSA, typically there is no need to change the default value.
• Key Size – should default to 2048, we recommend leaving the default value.

Enter a password or passphrase and click the “Generate Key” button.

The keys will be generated and shown.

To authorize SSH access using the private key you just created, click the “Go Back” link or icon.

In the “Public Keys” section, click the “Manage” link or icon.

Click the “Authorize” button.

Download private keys

Click the “Go Back” link or icon to get back to the “Manage SSH Keys” page.

In the “Private Keys” section of the “Manage SSH Keys” page, click the “View/Download” link or icon.

You have a few options here: click the “Download Key” button, copy/paste the provided key, or convert the key into PuTTY’s PPK format using the Convert option.

If you click the “Download Key” button, the key will be saved on your computer with the name “id_rsa.”

For this tutorial, we’re going to use the PuTTY SSH program so in the “Convert the “id_rsa” key to PPK format:” section, enter the password or passphrase you specified during key generation, and click the “Convert” button.

The key will be saved on your computer with the name “id_rsa.ppk.”

To follow along from this point on, you’ll need PuTTY, so if you don’t already have it, download and install PuTTY.

Open the PuTTy folder on your computer and run puttygen.exe.

In the PuTTY Key Generator menu, select the “File” tab and click “Load private key.”

Select the PPK format key that you saved in cPanel.

Enter the password or passphrase you specified during key generation and click the “OK” button.

In the PuTTy folder on your computer, run putty.exe.

In the “Session” category, enter your server hostname into the “Host Name” field. Port is 22.

Go to the “Connection/ SSH/Auth” category. Select the PPK format key that you saved in cPanel and click the “Open” button.

A shell window will open. The “login as” username is your cPanel username, and the password is the password or passphrase you specified during key generation.

WARNING: Excercise caution when accessing your account via the command line. Incorrect or incorrectly used commands can permanently change or delete permissions and files. If you do not have command line experience or are uncertain about a command, we suggest exploring alternatives to using the command line.

The post Using SSH Keys for Shell Access to Your Account appeared first on GreenGeeks Support.

Log in to GreenGeeks.

Click the cPanel button under the “Quick Server Login” section in your dashboard.

In the “SOFTWARE” section, click the “Select PHP Version” link or icon.

Select the version you wish to use.

By default, the latest stable version (called the “native” version) will be selected and is already active. So if you wish to use the native version, you don’t need to make any of the changes described here.

When you click a PHP version other than the native version, the PHP extensions list will appear. Sometimes when choosing a new version, no extensions will be selected or activated.

If no extensions are selected or activated for your new PHP version, click the “Reset to default” button. That will activate some of the most commonly used PHP extensions.

Click the “Set as current” link to save the PHP version change.

Can I Run Multiple Versions of PHP on a single cPanel Account?

By default, GreenGeeks PHP Selector sets a single PHP version to use across the entire account.

Although not recommended, if you need to use a separate version of PHP for a specific site, or sub-folder, it’s possible to do this using custom .htaccess entries in that folder.

As an example, to set PHP 7.4, add the following lines to the top of the .htaccess file in the directory where the separate PHP version is to run.

<FilesMatch "\.(php4|php5|php3|php2|php|phtml)$">
 SetHandler application/x-httpd-alt-php74-lsphp
</FilesMatch>

To use another version of PHP, replace php74 with the version you need to run, ie for PHP 8.1:

 SetHandler application/x-httpd-alt-php81-lsphp

If you need help to run multiple versions of PHP under one cPanel, contact the Technical Support Team for assistance.

Related articles

Configuring PHP Environment Variables

PHP Versions Available (as of May 2023)

• 8.2.5
• 8.1.18
• 8.0.28
• 7.4.33  [Default/Native version]
• 7.3.33
• 7.2.34
• 7.1.33
• 7.0.33
• 5.6.40
• 5.5.38
• 5.4.45
• 5.3.29
• 5.2.17

If you run into any problems or have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact a member of our Support Staff by opening a ticket in GreenGeeks.

The post How to Choose Your PHP Version appeared first on GreenGeeks Support.

When one website consumes or monopolizes resources which are limited, it can negatively impact overall server performance, so we have usage limits for RAM, CPU, I/O, entry processes, and inodes for each account. That allows us to ensure the best possible performance for everyone on the shared web hosting service.

That said, some users will have to increase the limits on their account based on their specific needs. Let’s take a look at each type of resource and talk about when you should consider increasing your limit should you ever find yourself facing resource issues.

CPU

For our purposes, CPU refers to the number of central processing units that are available for your account’s requests. Requests can be a number of things, such as delivering content to site visitors, database writing, script processing, or loading RAM with data. The CPU is the foundation of the rest of your account’s resources.

Servers utilize a variety of CPU cores, so what we do is display the overall percentage of the cores that your server will be able to access.

Reasons to Prioritize Increasing CPU

If your website depends on scripts (PHP, for example) or uses a database, then increasing the CPU of your account can have benefits. Here are some other common reasons to focus on upgrading the CPU limit:

• If you have a large amount of traffic.
• If you have add-ons from third parties such as plug-ins or themes.
• If your PHP is not configured optimally.
• If your code is outdated or not written well.

RAM

RAM, or “random access memory,” can be a very critical part of your server. Some reasons to increase it include:

• RAM is the quickest option when it comes to loading data for your website.
• More RAM means less stress on your CPU when it comes to the amount of data it must convert from hard storage.
• Scripts, such as PHP, will have much more time to work before running out of space.

Increasing RAM allows the server to handle more complex jobs and run faster.

Reasons to Prioritize Increasing RAM

When you increase your RAM, your account’s general performance will increase, so it’s good to upgrade your account’s RAM limitation if you want your website to run more quickly.

While your first instinct may be to increase RAM when running into 503 or 500 errors, it’s possible that those errors can be a result of engineering and not necessarily caused by exceeding limitations.

Often, overuse of resources can be caused by a script or a plug-in that hasn’t been properly configured. Simply increasing RAM may fix this temporarily, but the same problems could slowly work themselves up to the new limitation. If that is the case with your site, focus on fixing the individual elements before increasing the RAM.

That said, you may just have a very busy site. If that is the case, increasing RAM is the right way to go.

I/O

I/O, which means “input/output,” is essentially the speed at which your data travels when it’s moving from hard memory to RAM. So increasing I/O speed will make the process much faster.

Reasons to Prioritize Increasing I/O

This can be difficult to determine at first, as you can’t exceed the I/O limit the way you can with other resources. Rather than exceeding the limit, the site will wait for the information to pass from the hard disk to the RAM, which can cause lags or hanging.

Knowing the right time to increase I/O will require understanding how the website was constructed. The majority of websites that regularly need to monitor and increase their I/O include sites that deal with database records or live streaming. Essentially, any website that reads and writes a lot of data. Adjusting I/O can still be tricky, as simply increasing it is not going to resolve every issue that is related to lag.

Files

When referring to file usage, we’re talking about the number of inodes on the account. It’s important to understand that an inode is a lot more than just a file; it’s a data point used to reference a directory or a file in Linux systems. The issue of file usage becomes more complex when you realize that a number of different inodes can reference the same directory or file.

The specifics can be confusing, but it’s accurate to say that the number of inodes will generally equal the number of directories and the number of files. One thing to keep in mind is that GreenGeeks accounts count each stored email message and email folder as individual inodes.

Reasons to Prioritize Increasing File Usage

If you simply need to increase the number of directories, files, or email messages on your account, then adding inodes is a way to fix the problem quickly.

But it’s also possible to use a plug-in or a script that creates too many directories or files in your account. If this is the underlying problem, then a simple file usage increase isn’t going to address the issue. You’ll have to identify and fix the script/plug-in directly.

Entry Processes

“Entry processes” represent the number of simultaneous connections your account can handle at any one time. It’s important to understand what constitutes such a connection, so let’s take a closer look:

• Having data delivered by HTTP
• Having data transferred by your hosting account through SSH
• Processing a Cron job

It’s important to realize that these connections only count while they’re processing. Once they’ve been completed, they are no longer considered a process.

Reasons to Prioritize Increasing Entry Processes

While calculating and fully understanding entry processes may be difficult, knowing when you need to increase them can be pretty straightforward. When you see 508 errors (the ones that say “Resource Limit Reached”), you’ll know it’s time to increase your entry processes.

GreenGeeks offers a wide variety of web hosting options that can be tailored to your website’s growing needs. Get in touch with a member of our sales staff, and we will be more than happy to help you make the required upgrades to ensure your website is getting the resources it needs.

The post How Does Resource Usage Affect My Website? appeared first on GreenGeeks Support.

Most aspects of your website will still function without FrontPage Server Extensions, and you can continue to use and manage your site using FrontPage or Expression Web, however, some features of your website, such as contact forms, will no longer work.

For instructions on uploading your site via FTP using FrontPage, see this article.

The post Does GreenGeeks Support Microsoft FrontPage? appeared first on GreenGeeks Support.

So, for example, if your add-on domain was ggexample.net, the folder would be: /ggexample.net

All files for the Addon domain ggexample.net would be uploaded to: /public_html/ggexample.net

The post Where Do I Upload Website Files for an Addon Domain? appeared first on GreenGeeks Support.

If your account is under 10 GB in size, you can use the cPanel backup tool. For larger accounts, you can make a backup yourself.

Option 1: Use the cPanel Backup Tool

If your account is over 10 GB in size this option will not be available. Please see the section on making your own backups.

Log in to GreenGeeks and go to cPanel by clicking the “cPanel” button in the “Quick Server Login” section.

Click the “Backup” link in the cPanel “Files” section.

Click the “Home Directory” button to download a backup of your website home directory.

If your website uses a MySQL database, download a copy of the database by clicking the database name in the “Download a MySQL Database Backup” list.

If you need a backup your entire cPanel account, click the “Download a Full Account Backup” button.

cPanel backups saved to your home directory will be automatically deleted after 48 hours. Once you’ve generated a backup, please download it to your local computer as soon as possible.

cPanel backups are disabled for accounts greater than 10 GB in size. For accounts larger than 10 GB, follow the backup instructions below. Alternately, you can request that GreenGeeks generate a full cPanel backup. There is a $5 fee (per cPanel) for backups performed by GreenGeeks.

Option 2: Make Your Own Website Backups

If you’re running a content management system, such as Drupal, WordPress, or any web site that runs a database, you’ll have to back up the database as well as the website files. If you’re running a simple website, you’ll just back up the website files.

Backing up Website Files

We recommend using an FTP program such as FileZilla to back up your files. Copy the entire /public_html directory from your web hosting account to your local PC. If your email is also hosted with GreenGeeks, you can back it up by downloading the /mail directory.

Backing up Databases

Log in to GreenGeeks and go to cPanel by clicking the “cPanel Login” button in the “Quick Server Login” section.

In the “Databases” section, click the “phpMyAdmin” link or icon.

Click the name of the database you want to download.

Click the “Export” tab.

For most common applications, such as preparing a backup that will also be imported using phpMyAdmin, the default settings are sufficient, click the “Go” button to start the backup.

To select only specific tables, or to export the database structure, etc., select “Custom” and click the “Go” button to access the advanced options screen.

The backup will be downloaded to your computer as a .sql file.

The post How to Create a Backup of Your Website appeared first on GreenGeeks Support.

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