Checksum Arcanius

In the last two days, I

1. Changed my blog’s MySQL tables storage engines from the MyISAM to InnoDB
2. Installed the WordPress Memcache Plugin to mimimize database queries (16-25 queries reduced to 2-7)
3. Installed APC (Alternative PHP Cache) to reduce PHP bytecode compilation overhead. As a result, all PHP sites on mimimus should be faster.

In addition, I did some general cleaning up and upgrading of software on minimus and nexus.

Altogether, these changes reduce the typical Checksum Arcanius page load from 2.5-3.5 seconds to 0.5-1.5 seconds, a 2-7x improvement.

These are very easy steps to take — I would suggest them to anyone running WordPress. Step-by-step directions follow (assuming Ubuntu Linux):

1. For each table in your blog’s database, execute the following SQL via a mysql client instance, phpMyAdmin, etc:
   ALTER TABLE <tablename> ENGINE = InnoDB;
2. Install memcache:
   sudo apt-get install memcache
3. Download the WordPress Memcache Plugin and place it in your wp-content directory. That is all you have to do to get memcache support in WordPress!
4. Install APC:
   sudo apt-get install php-apc
5. Restart Apache:
   sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Very simple steps with a very high payoff.

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