# Nginx, PHP, Wordpress, VirtualBox **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [January 11, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-php-wordpress-virtualbox/229553 "2013-01-11T00:41:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_LSMiller)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-php-wordpress-virtualbox/229553/1 "2013-01-11T00:41:20Z")
Dunno if anyone’s running anything similar. I recently shifted to Nginx from Cherokee - and in so doing I setup a virtual server using VirtualBox to run it in. My primary use is for serving a pair of Wordpress sites. This is not (currently) a high-traffic server - but I do want it to run well regardless. My current configuration for the virtual hardware is 1 CPU and 1G RAM. Nginx (obviously) is installed, as is php-fpm. Mysql is running on the host - both host & guest are Ubuntu. Generally, of that 1G I see half in-use, a quarter cached, and a quarter free. So my first reaction is I don’t THINK I’m starving the VM for RAM - but maybe I’m missing something. I generally don’t seeing anything actively running except for php during a request - which hits 25% usage. ## Any suggestions for modifying my virtual or nginx config? Or do I need to focus on Wordpress caching? Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_LSMiller)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-php-wordpress-virtualbox/229553/2 "2013-01-11T00:50:06Z")
On Thu, 2013-01-10 at 15:40 -0800, Daniel L. Miller wrote: > Generally, of that 1G I see half in-use, a quarter cached, and a quarter > free. So my first reaction is I don’t THINK I’m starving the VM for RAM > > - but maybe I’m missing something. > > I generally don’t seeing anything actively running except for php during > a request - which hits 25% usage. > > Any suggestions for modifying my virtual or nginx config? Or do I need > to focus on Wordpress caching? You don’t say what the problem is, but if it’s performance, look at: 1. Host database config 2. PHP config - memory use 3. Add an opcode cacher - APC seems to work best on php-fpm 4. Nginx config - compression, expiry headers, fpm resources. TBH I feel that WP caching options are for those without the ability to to the job properly - ie cannot tune their servers. …but it all sounds ok to me TBH. I run pure nginx servers on KVM VPSes with 128MB - and they only use half of that. hth, Steve ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_LSMiller)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-php-wordpress-virtualbox/229553/3 "2013-01-11T02:05:02Z")
On 1/10/2013 3:49 PM, Steve H. wrote: > > LOL - you’re right! I didn’t mention what my problem might be! Yes, it was a performance concern. My site’s rather small - basically a corporate vanity site - and I haven’t been slashdotted yet…so I don’t think it’s a huge issue now… It just “felt” like it was running slow. I did just switch from xcache to apc - and also adjusted the apc settings to where they might do some good. ## I also just realized that many of my caching options get invalidated when I access the site as a logged-in admin. That all by itself makes a HUGE difference! Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_LSMiller)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 10:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-php-wordpress-virtualbox/229553/4 "2013-01-11T10:05:09Z")
> On 1/10/2013 3:49 PM, Steve H. wrote: > > > You don’t say what the problem is, but if it’s performance, look at: > > > > 1. Host database config > > 2. PHP config - memory use > > 3. Add an opcode cacher - APC seems to work best on php-fpm > > 4. Nginx config - compression, expiry headers, fpm resources. > > > > TBH I feel that WP caching options are for those without the ability to > > to the job properly - ie cannot tune their servers. Not sure what you are referring to here. The premise is that caching for WordPress is a must: I am running a WordPress site with nginx, php-fpm, and APC on a low performance machine with two cores. Without caching, it is able to serve about 5 page requests per second. At this request rate, php-fpm constantly produces 100 % CPU load on both cores. The take-home message is that WordPress is bloated and requires its resources. Maybe this is still tunable in order to increase performance by a few or even 100 percent. But this is not worth the effort, because with enabled nginx fastcgi\_cache the server easily answers thousands of requests per second, i.e. exhibits several orders of magnitude more performance. Some people are using a caching plugin for WordPress itself – which is a good solution when using a shared hosting platform without the chance to change the web stack or change the web server configuration. Others implement caching below the web application level as I did. This is a cleaner and probably faster solution. In any case, caching for WordPress is a must. Cheers, Jan-Philip ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_LSMiller)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 10:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-php-wordpress-virtualbox/229553/5 "2013-01-11T10:32:02Z")
On 11/01/13 22:04, Jan-Philip Gehrcke wrote: > enabled nginx fastcgi\_cache the server easily answers thousands of > > Cheers, > > Jan-Philip > So you agree with me then… ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_LSMiller)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-php-wordpress-virtualbox/229553/6 "2013-01-11T18:50:33Z")
On 1/10/2013 3:49 PM, Steve H. wrote: > …but it all sounds ok to me TBH. I run pure nginx servers on KVM VPSes > with 128MB - and they only use half of that. ## Do you have php or other services running on other VM’s than the ngninx servers with such minimum settings? Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Daniel\_LSMiller](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_LSMiller)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-php-wordpress-virtualbox/229553/7 "2013-01-11T19:44:18Z")
On 12/01/2013, at 6:49 AM, “Daniel L. Miller” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > [mailman.nginx.org archive](http://mailman.nginx.org/mailman/listinfo/nginx) > Yes, they were running on the physical server. Steve