VPS Hosting for your Drupal Website - Why, How to move from Shared Hosting to a VPS?

A VPS lies somewhere in between shared hosting and dedicated servers in terms of the features it provides. VPS divides the server’s primary resources and gives you certain amount of diskspace, memory, processing speed and bandwidth, with freedom on the OS configuration. In the case of shared hosting its like a common pool from which you consume bandwidth, diskspace, and processing power until it is exhausted. You dont get much control over the OS config. A VPS gives you a complete virtual server, which looks and acts like a normal server - you have full freedom and complete control on the OS configuration.

Why move from Shared hosting to VPS ?

These are the major reasons for moving your Drupal site from a shared hosting service to a VPS:

1. High website traffic and need for speed.
2. Business branding needs.
3. Supportability- Full or semi managed hosting support.
4. Improved security- Advanced security features, monitoring and backups.
5. Advanced performance management options.
6. Ability to manage your clients hosting needs.
7. SEO needs – Fast loading pages, dedicated ip's and private name servers.

If you see these to be valid in your case, it’s time you moved your site to a VPS.

How to move from shared hosting to VPS ?

Now that you might have decided to go for the move, this would be the normal workflow for getting your Drupal site moved to a VPS:

1. Backup your current hosting files and database.
2. Backup your email data. If you are currently using cPanel, the entire cPanel data with mail accounts can be copied to VPS with cPanel.
3. Create a hosting package on your VPS account with diskspace and bandwidth defined.
4. Install your CMS (Drupal) and restore data.
5. Create DNS servers for your private name servers.
6. Update your private nameservers with your domain registrar so that your domain points to your VPS hosting.

This should help you get started on moving to VPS Hosting for your Drupal Website.