Title: Server Load and getting down Last modified: August 21, 2016 --- # Server Load and getting down * [f.junaid](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fjunaid/) * (@fjunaid) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/) * Hello, * I am facing some issues with my website, my website is hosted on dedicated server Xeon with 8GB of Ram. * Our website is very large one having around 54k of posts and around 50k images in nextgen gallery and around 2000 tags. * Recently we installed W3 Total Cache Plugin, I can see the pages are loading faster, but the issue is the server load still is on the higher side. I mean the average load is around 3-4% where as sometimes it get high upto 15-30% as a result of which server got halted and sites are not accessible. * Its hosted with Wiredtree who provide full support, they have configured W3 Total Cache with Memcached and tunned my.cnf etc. * But I am still facing issues as today the server got high load. * Traffic to the website is not that high its around 2000 unique visitors and 13000 page views per day. * Please suggest what to do, I have enabled Page, Database, Object Cache. * [http://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/](http://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/) Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/page/2/?output_format=md) * [WebEndev](https://wordpress.org/support/users/munman/) * (@munman) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028177) * I would use APC instead of Memcached. Use APC on Database and Object Cache. Set Page Cache to Disk Enhanced, and Minify to Disk. Set the apc.shm_size to 512M to start. Monitor the APC memory usage for a bit. It should not exceed 50%. If it does, then increase apc.shm_size accordingly. * Hope that helps * Thread Starter [f.junaid](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fjunaid/) * (@fjunaid) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028179) * Thanks for your response, i did what you recommended, well can you please guide me whether i should go ahead and install varnish too? as still i can see load is around 4-5%. * [WebEndev](https://wordpress.org/support/users/munman/) * (@munman) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028180) * Server load of 4 to 5% is great. APC is typically 5 to 8 times faster than memcached, and more widely supported. * I have never used varnish, so I can’t tell you about one. * Also – try this – [http://nginxcp.com/about/](http://nginxcp.com/about/) for a front end proxy. It will increase http request processing speed, improve security, and reduce server load. It rocks…. (use version 4.4, which is the latest stable release). * My last bit of advice – consider moving from Wiredtree, to KnownHost VPS or dedicated. The SSD VPS plans are smoking fast. And KnownHost support is unbelievably awesome. Just my 2 cents, based upon my personal experience. * P.S. – your server load should not be high with the level of traffic that you mentioned. I would think that there is something else wrong. But spikes upto 15-30% is not abnormal. * Thread Starter [f.junaid](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fjunaid/) * (@fjunaid) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028181) * well i am unable to use disk enhanced for page cache because of some sessions we are using, APC works fine for that, i have increased the apc.shm_size to 512M, but when checking the statistics i can’t see the number increasing, its Free: 511.5 MBytes (99.9%) * please help 🙂 * [WebEndev](https://wordpress.org/support/users/munman/) * (@munman) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028182) * The reason that APC memory usage is not increasing is because apc.ttl and apc. user_ttl are probably set to the default (0), which is causing APC to clear immediately. * Set: – apc.ttl 7200 – apc.user_ttl 7200 – apc.shm_strings_buffer 4M – apc.user_entries_hint 4096 (this can vary depending on the size of your database and activity) – apc. max_file_size 2M – apc.num_files_hint (this can vary also, but this is what I have it set at, for my 4 WP installs) * Make sure apc.stat is 1. * Again, the only setting that might have to change is apc.shm_size (you should have it at 512M now). If memory usage is consistently above 50%, then increase apc.shm_size until it uses around 50% on average. This will require you to monitor APC memory usage for a few hours to get a good feel for what is needed. With 8MB of RAM on your server, you have plenty of RAM to dedicate to APC if needed. * Hope that helps * Thread Starter [f.junaid](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fjunaid/) * (@fjunaid) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028183) * all changes you suggested added but i can still see no difference and * Uptime 0 minutes * [WebEndev](https://wordpress.org/support/users/munman/) * (@munman) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028184) * As your APC cache fills (based on access of your site by visitors), you should see the memory usage increase. It might be possible that you have to restart apache to see the changes? (I’m not sure?) * [Pothi Kalimuthu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pothi/) * (@pothi) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028185) * May I join in here? * The load is mentioned in plain numerals without percentage. So, [@f](https://wordpress.org/support/users/f/). junaid, you may be referring something else, rather than [the server load](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_(computing)). Also, you haven’t mentioned your site URL that would provide a lot of data for us to examine. * [WebEndev](https://wordpress.org/support/users/munman/) * (@munman) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028187) * I assumed he meant server load and it was showing something like .05 .05 .05. Which would be just fine… * Thread Starter [f.junaid](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fjunaid/) * (@fjunaid) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028188) * well i am talking about CPU load as mentioned at: * WHM: * Home »Server Status »Service Status * also just to update you people today i changed php handler from suphp to dso huh it ruined everything server was swapping out frequently for memory. * i recompiled Apache with suphp once again and this time i remove suhosin to save some memory and cpu usage. * i can see its working perfect for now without any cache plugin activated. I will activate it but i first need to adjust some code of my website. * [WebEndev](https://wordpress.org/support/users/munman/) * (@munman) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028189) * f.junaid – * I run DSO with mod_ruid2 and it improves performance by a huge amount. FYI * Thread Starter [f.junaid](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fjunaid/) * (@fjunaid) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028190) * i did the same i mean installed mod_ruid2 but it was creating way too much of issues memory usage was drastically increasing. any ways so far so good, the only thing i have an issue with is w3tc as i am unable to configure it to exclude some specific php code. i tried a lot but in vain. * [WebEndev](https://wordpress.org/support/users/munman/) * (@munman) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028191) * > i mean installed mod_ruid2 but it was creating way too much of issues memory > usage was drastically increasing * That is odd. I saw no increase in memory usage at all with DSO/mod_RUID2 vs suPHP. And I see LESS CPU usage using DSO/mod_RUID2. * How many sites are you running on your server? Are you running any other applications besides WordPress sites? * Thread Starter [f.junaid](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fjunaid/) * (@fjunaid) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028192) * we have few small wordpress sites nothing much server is powerful one its Xeon E3 * i was extremely surprised about what is causing all this, what i did was i started with eaccelerator and when i realised the issue i removed that and installed xcache and with xcache the situation got worse, and at the end remove all those cache related things but still the same. * here you can find the screenshot of memory usage at that time: [http://i42.tinypic.com/k9esew.jpg](http://i42.tinypic.com/k9esew.jpg) * server support tried hard they tune up apache but didn’t helped there were lots of nobody process running and consuming good amount of memory. * [WebEndev](https://wordpress.org/support/users/munman/) * (@munman) * [12 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/#post-4028193) * Huh… I don’t have any more suggestions other than start all over with a default install of apache and go from there. * DSO and mod_ruid2 definitely work well – very, very well. Unbelievable speed improvements. I assume you are using a recent version of PHP (5.4.x). * Good luck! Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘Server Load and getting down’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/w3-total-cache/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=1041806) * [W3 Total Cache](https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/w3-total-cache/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/w3-total-cache/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/w3-total-cache/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/w3-total-cache/reviews/) * 18 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [f.junaid](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fjunaid/) * Last activity: [12 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-load-and-getting-down/page/2/#post-4028207) * Status: not resolved