Posts like "I would never buy a VPS .." or "get a real host" are totally unwarranted.
There are several reasons that could cause your server to use memory even when you are not doing anything (or anything that you know of ...), and 99% of them have nothing to do with it being a VPS, or a fault of the host.
I have clients running 300+ wordpress installs - with decent traffic - on a VPS with 512mb of RAM. With the proper caching and http compression engine, a VPS will handle a lot, and has notable benefits for redundancy and I/O.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kazymjir
Log into shell and check running processes.
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What HE ^^ said
1) Run TOP and see what processes (PIDs) are using your resources ...
2) Check your mail logs and see if perhaps malware (on your home PC) is using the server's sendmail to bulk mail spam (you will also see many dovecot PIDs in 'top' if your server is being used as a mailing slave)
**If your issues seem to be mail-related, run your favorite malware removal software (AVAST boot time/root kit scan is one of the better ones), change all your logins/passwords on the server, and REBOOT the server!
3) Make sure all available server updates and patches are installed, as these often address exploits that will use your resources.