Since zend opcache filled opcaching need only, we needed something for data-cache. There is one APC fork trying to extract data-caching code on Github. But we wanted something stable and mature so we choose to go with memcache.

I always hated presence of php5-memcache and php5-memcached – two solutions for similar needs. I read this and this and many more threads but could reach a conclusion.

Actually for our trivial needs both extensions should work fine. But we (forced) to choose php5-memcache as w3-total-cache doesn’t support only this!

Installation


			apt-get install memcached php5-memcache
service php5-fpm restart

Config

Increase Max Memory memcache can use

By default, its 64MB. You may need more.

Open /etc/memcached.conf
Look for value -m 64
Change it to -m 1024
Restart memcached service memcached restart

Move PHP’s session storage to memcache

Open /etc/php5/mods-available/memcache.ini

Add following lines:


			session.save_handler = memcache
session.save_path = "tcp://localhost:11211"

Extra: Since memcached can works in multiserver mode, you can share session across server. Google for more info on this. I will post our config when we will write one! 😉

Changes in w3-total-cache plugin

In w3-total-cache plugin you need to choose memcache as backend for object-cache and database-cache.

Web-based Stats Viewer for Memcache

There are many but we choose phpmemcacheadmin


			cd /var/www/example.com/htdocs/
mkdir mem && cd mem
wget http://phpmemcacheadmin.googlecode.com/files/phpMemcachedAdmin-1.2.2-r262.tar.gz
tar -xvzf phpMemcachedAdmin-1.2.2-r262.tar.gz
chmod +r *
chmod 0777 Config/Memcache.php

Installation of PHP Code Review Tools

PREVIOUS

PHP's Zend Opcache Config & Web Viewer

NEXT

Comments

RavanH

October 7, 2013

Hi, as soon as I set session.save_handler = memcache (and restart php5) I get PHP Internal Server Errors all around… I cannot for the life of me figure out why ;(
Can anyone share some tips on debugging this?
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  October 7, 2013
  
  There are many things which can possibly go wrong. Please check error log for site.
Guill

October 7, 2013

I’m using also php5.5 with the zend optimiser. I’ve got issues each time I save the settings in W3TC. I think the setting page is cached by the zend optimiser (not by nginx) so the only way to see the changes is to force a browser refresh. Weird. Any way to force the zend optimiser to check the cache for each request? (like apc stat 0)
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  October 7, 2013
  
  You may need following as described in http://rtcamp.com/wordpress-nginx/tutorials/php/zend-opcache/
```
opcache.revalidate_freq=0
opcache.consistency_checks=1
```
  1. Guill
    
    October 9, 2013
    
    Oups, missed these 2 lines. Thank you Rahul!
Alex

January 18, 2014

So, i use php 5.3…and want use memcached also
when i uncomment memcache.ini

session.save_handler = memcache
session.save_path = “tcp://127.0.0.1:11211”

my WP not work, blank page
memcached server is starting of course…and config to -l 127.0.0.1:11211
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  January 18, 2014
  
  You can leave session related 2 lines commented.
  
  Some bad plugins do not work with memcache-based sessions.
DeAndre Johnson

January 30, 2014

Have you considered the pros and cons of redis vs memcache?
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  February 3, 2014
  
  Yes. It seems redis is faster but did not proper support for redis in wordpress & nginx world. So for now using memcache.
  
  Also difference is too small to matter for WordPress/content sites.
ari

February 26, 2014

Just to add that if installing all this you need to do service php5-fpm restart so w3-total cache will recognize the install
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  February 28, 2014
  
  Thanks for comment. 🙂
  
  I missed that. I have updated article so php will detect memcache module.
SID

February 27, 2014

Hello!
When i’m trying connect to memcache-server using connect – all work very good. But when i trying use addServer – I all time see error timeout connect to server.
Can you help?
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  February 28, 2014
  
  Sorry. I never developed any memcache related codes. We use memcache for WordPress sites through w3-total-cache plugin.
  
  May be you can post it on – http://stackoverflow.com/
Jeffrey

February 28, 2014

Hi, really like your posts about wordpress and nginx setup
how can I make sure I’m using memcache right?

I install the phpmemcacheadmin, but all the status is 0 ??

tks
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  February 28, 2014
  
  Run service memcached status
  You should see: * memcached is running
  
  Also, make sure you have configured WordPress/W3-Total-Cache plugin to use database-cache/object-cache.

Features

Useful Links

Product

Other Products

GoDAM

Subscribe for curated product updates, tips, and announcements.

"*" indicates required fields

Phone

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Email*

SIGN ME UP