Cloning and resizing your VPS

Sooner or later a VPS needs to change shape: more memory or disk for a growing site, or an exact copy to use as a staging server or a fresh start. This guide explains how resizing and cloning work for a Domain India VPS, what you ask support to do and what you do yourself inside the server, and the checks that stop a clone from clashing with the original.

1. Resizing and cloning: what each one means

• Resizing changes the resources of the same server: more vCPU, RAM or disk. The IP address, data and settings stay as they are.
• Cloning makes a second, separate server that starts as a copy of the first. It gets its own IP address, and from then on the two servers go their own way.

Resize when one server is running out of room. Clone when you need a staging copy, a test bed for an upgrade, or a second server to split the load.

2. Before you change anything: take your own backup

Whatever you do next, have a copy of your data that lives outside the VPS:

# Databases (MySQL or MariaDB)
mysqldump --all-databases --single-transaction --routines --events | gzip > /root/all-db-$(date +%F).sql.gz

# Website files and configuration
tar -czf /root/www-etc-$(date +%F).tar.gz /var/www /etc

Download both files to your computer or send them to off-site storage. For a scheduled setup, see automated backups with cron and rclone. If you rely on snapshots, ask support what your plan includes before you start.

3. Resize to a bigger plan

Compare the plans first. Each VPS plan is a fixed combination of vCPU, RAM and NVMe disk, so resizing means moving to the next plan up.

Moving to a smaller plan. CPU and RAM can go down, but a disk can't be shrunk in place without risking the data on it. To move to a smaller plan, order the smaller VPS, migrate your sites to it (section 5), and cancel the old one at its renewal. Note that VPS plans are not refundable once provisioned.

4. Grow the partition and filesystem after a disk upgrade

A bigger virtual disk doesn't automatically make a bigger filesystem. Check first:

lsblk          # size of the disk and its partitions
df -hT /       # size and type (ext4 or xfs) of the root filesystem

If the disk (for example vda) is larger than its root partition (for example vda1), grow the partition, then the filesystem:

# growpart comes from cloud-guest-utils (Debian/Ubuntu) or cloud-utils-growpart (AlmaLinux/Rocky)
sudo growpart /dev/vda 1

# ext4
sudo resize2fs /dev/vda1
# xfs (default on AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux)
sudo xfs_growfs /

Your device names may differ (sda, nvme0n1p1), and some images use LVM, where you run pvresize and lvextend -r instead. Read lsblk carefully and replace the names. If you're unsure, stop and ask support before running a resize command: a wrong device name can damage the disk.

5. Clone a VPS

Ask support first

Open a ticket saying which VPS you want copied and why. Support can tell you whether a copy can be made for you and what it costs; a copy needs a second VPS on your account either way.

Or build the copy yourself

This method works between any two Linux servers, including moving to a new plan:

For moving whole websites, the website migration guide walks through the same steps in more detail.

6. After cloning: make the copy its own server

An exact copy still thinks it is the original. Change these before you put it to work:

7. Troubleshooting

8. Where Domain India fits

Domain India VPS plans run on KVM with NVMe storage and full root access. Resizing and copies go through support, and the work inside the server is yours. If you'd rather not manage a server at all, shared hosting or the App Platform may suit you better; see VPS vs shared hosting.

Frequently asked questions

Ready to grow your server? Compare VPS plans, or open a ticket to ask for an upgrade or a copy of your VPS.