Is Overprovisioning VPS CPUs a Security and Performance Risk?

[johny899]

There might be instances when you have experienced a slow Virtual Private Server (VPS) even though it has enough CPU cores to support performance. I’ve been in this situation before, and over provisioning CPUs on VPS has led to slower performance (crashed) in the past. I’ll break this down in the simplest way possible.

Definition of Over Provisions​

In VPS over provisioning, your VPS hosting provider promises you more CPU Cores than the physical hardware can support. It is similar to throwing a pizza party (you plan to have 10 slices of pizza per person) and then you find out you only have 8 slices. This sounds great until some of your guests don’t have enough pizza!

Stabilty Issues​

If a VPS has too many other VPSs using the same CPU, your VPS may slow down or crash at times. It is possible to have software that runs behind schedule or stops running if your VPS has reached its CPU limitations.

I personally experienced this with a couple of VPSs set up as testing sites. In one instance, an app I had created just stopped working because there were too many other VPS users on the same cpu at the same time—classic over provisioning problem.

Security Threats Associated with VPSs​

The idea of having an over-extended CPU is frightening because hackers can view other VPSs through the over-utilized CPUs. Some hackers take advantage of the shared processing cores to gain access to private information.

This means that using an over-provisioned VPS for critical applications, like email servers, could be dangerous as well as inefficient in performance.

What You Can Do to Protect and Speed Up Your VPS​

• Choose your VPS providers wisely. Select hosts that do not over-promise on the number of CPUs they provide.
• Monitor your CPU utilization regularly to make sure that you do not exceed your maximum CPU threshold.
• Separate your critical applications from your load-testing applications. Do not run both types of applications on the same VPS.

Conclusion​

Although over-provisioning does not always result in slowness or lack of security, it can create a situation where a VPS runs significantly slower and can be a potential security risk. In my experience, it is often worth paying the extra cost for a VPS with actual processor power to avoid instances when a VPS becomes inoperable or unusable due to excessive processing requirement placed upon it. Have you ever had the experience of your VPS slowing down or crashing due to over-provisioning?