Common VPS and Cloud errors: SSH, memory, disk and reboots

On a VPS the machine is yours: the system, the services and the firewall obey your orders — and your mistakes. These are the problems that come up again and again, and what to check for each.

Symptom Where to look first
SSH: Connection refused The machine answers but the SSH service is not running, or it is on another port. This is different from getting no answer at all.
SSH: Connection timed out You are not reaching it: firewall blocking, wrong IP, or the machine is off. If you blocked your own IP, use the panel console — it does not go through the network and still gets you in.
Locked out after changing the firewall It happens to everyone once. Get in through the console and restore the rule. Next time, test rules in a separate session before saving them.
Everything slow, services dying Out of memory. The system starts killing processes to survive — and it picks the biggest ones first, usually the database.
Nothing saves, odd errors Disk full. Usual suspects: logs nobody clears and backups kept on the machine itself.
After a reboot the site does not come back The service was never set to start on boot. It works until the first reboot — and the first reboot always comes.
Windows: Remote Desktop will not connect Port 3389 closed on the firewall, or too many open sessions. Close old sessions instead of leaving them hanging — see connecting with Remote Desktop .

The right order to diagnose

1 Is the machine alive? Check in the panel that it is powered on and responding. If it is not, nothing else matters.
2 Can you reach it? A ping or a port test separates a network problem from a service problem.
3 Does it have space and memory? A full disk and exhausted memory explain most absurd behaviour.
4 Is the service running? Only after those three is it worth digging into application logs.
The panel console is your back door. While SSH depends on the network and the firewall, the console connects straight to the machine. Learn to use it before you need it — the day you need it is the worst day to be figuring it out.
Copy the system before you touch it. A snapshot before a major update costs minutes and saves nights. On a VPS, backups are your responsibility — see what changes between a managed and an unmanaged VPS .

Locked out of your machine? Tell us what you see and we will handle what is on our side.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Managed or unmanaged VPS: which to choose and who does what

Connecting to a Windows VPS with Remote Desktop

First steps with your VPS

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