Tweaking and tuning apache!

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writingismypassion

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Hello i have hosted 10+ wordpress sites on a 512mb ram vps(i know its low)
I need someone to disable unneeded or unneccessary files\process which are running and taking my memory.like disabling modules which are not needed.
it will hardly take half an hour if you know all things right.
My budget is not much.
Let me know if you can do it and any tutorial you ca refer ( i will try to do it myself)
I have centos installed and vesta cp panel running.
 
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How much is you budget.
What's your vps running on.
Control panel?
 
Hi OP,

I tend to agree with what was said before : upgrade will cost you less (and give you better results) than tweaking apache.

Moreover tweaking Apache is not about disabling unnecessary modules (if they are not used, they are not using resources). Apache tweaking is more about setting max connections, number of forks, etc. And imho, when tweaking, you should also tweak databases system (probably mysql in your case).

If you really want better performance for you actual "hardware", it would be better to give Nginx + php-fpm a try instead of using Apache, or again tweak mysql before tweaking Apache.

Considering how "low", you actual VPS is, I would personally just upgrade it before trying to tweak it.
 
If you have busy sites then I would spend more time looking at the database side of things and the caching you have on the wordpress installs. As all the sites are dynamic thats where your memory will get slapped.

If you want to keep hosting on a small VPS, and to be honest I am surprised that a 512Mb one is running that without sobbing like a little girl if you have any large number of visitors, I would take a look at installing something like Nginx for the web server and either use a very tweaked mysql install or check out something with a lower memory footprint (haven't really looked but checked out mongo or mariadb, they may be more efficient)

Good luck though!
 
installation of ngnix is better than tweaking apache. also you can use percona database, it performs better than the plain mysql. If you are looking for any help on this then PM me I will help you out.
 
Try nginx instead of Apache and use Redis caching. I would advice against using nosql solutions, on your level the performance gain is minimal
 
If your Wordpress content is primarily static to anonymous users, turn on and configure mod_cache and htcacheclean. Works just like Nginx's FastCGI Cache or Varnish. Once the page is saved on disk and enters Linux's disk cache, the kernel spits out the pages like there's no tomorrow. You'll be bandwidth limited on most hosts before you even get anywhere close to stressing the CPU.

Example of my mod_cache settings if I ever needed it:
Code: 
CacheEnable disk /
CacheDirLength 1
CacheIgnoreHeaders Set-Cookie
CacheLock On
CacheRoot "/var/cache/apache2/"
 
This image below shows a non-scientific benchmark being ran against a 1CPU/768MB instant on Vultr running Apache 2.4.18 (mod_security/crs enabled) w/PHP-FPM (suhosin+ioncube) (using ECDHSA/ECC certs, ALPN, SSL Cooldown+SessionCache+Stapling+Tickets and HTTP2).

image.png


If this were plain HTTP, I'd probably have a RPS over 12K, if not more. If I created another PHP-FPM listener, for only ionCube required apps, I'd wouldn't have the performance bottleneck of ionCube running everytime a php file is processed. When I hear people complain about Apache being slow, it makes me laugh. It's usually an apples to orange comparison of mod_PHP vs Nginx's FastCGI instead of going against Apache's mod_proxy_fcgi.
 
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The configs and compile profile for the Apache server running on the 1CPU/768MB instance.

apache2 -V:
Code: 
Server version: Apache/2.4.18 (Unix)
Server built:   May  3 2016 20:05:54
Server's Module Magic Number: 20120211:52
Server loaded:  APR 1.5.2, APR-UTIL 1.5.4
Compiled using: APR 1.5.2, APR-UTIL 1.5.4
Architecture:   64-bit
Server MPM:     event
  threaded:     yes (fixed thread count)
    forked:     yes (variable process count)
Server compiled with....
 -D APR_HAS_SENDFILE
 -D APR_HAS_MMAP
 -D APR_HAVE_IPV6 (IPv4-mapped addresses enabled)
 -D APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE
 -D APR_USE_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE
 -D SINGLE_LISTEN_UNSERIALIZED_ACCEPT
 -D APR_HAS_OTHER_CHILD
 -D AP_HAVE_RELIABLE_PIPED_LOGS
 -D DYNAMIC_MODULE_LIMIT=256
 -D HTTPD_ROOT="/usr"
 -D SUEXEC_BIN="/usr/bin/suexec"
 -D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="/var/run/httpd.pid"
 -D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status"
 -D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="logs/error_log"
 -D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="/etc/apache2/mime.types"
 -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="/etc/apache2/httpd.conf"

apache2 -M:
Code: 
Loaded Modules:
 core_module (static)
 so_module (static)
 http_module (static)
 mpm_event_module (static)
 alias_module (shared)
 authn_core_module (shared)
 authz_core_module (shared)
 authz_host_module (shared)
 dir_module (shared)
 env_module (shared)
 expires_module (shared)
 headers_module (shared)
 http2_module (shared)
 log_config_module (shared)
 mime_module (shared)
 proxy_module (shared)
 proxy_fcgi_module (shared)
 rewrite_module (shared)
 setenvif_module (shared)
 ssl_module (shared)
 socache_shmcb_module (shared)
 unique_id_module (shared)
 unixd_module (shared)

/etc/apache2/httpd.conf:
Code: 
ServerRoot "/usr/lib64/apache2"
Group apache
Include /etc/apache2/modules.d/*.conf
Include /etc/apache2/vhosts.d/*.conf
Listen xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80 [B](I have my Apache bound to a single IP [IPv4 and IPv6] as my machine has multiple IPs.  If you have only one IP or you want Apache to listen on all interfaces, use ":80".)
[/B]Listen [xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx]:80 [B](Comment out or delete if you don't need IPv6)[/B]
Listen xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:443 [B](Comment out or delete if you don't need ssl)[/B]
Listen [xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx]:443 [B](Comment out or delete if you don't need ssl or IPv6)[/B]
LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so
LoadModule authn_core_module modules/mod_authn_core.so
LoadModule authz_core_module modules/mod_authz_core.so
LoadModule authz_host_module modules/mod_authz_host.so
#LoadModule cache_module modules/mod_cache.so [B](I don't have it turned on.  I'll only enable it if there's a significant traffic spike.)[/B]
#LoadModule cache_disk_module modules/mod_cache_disk.so [B](Works in conjuction with the above.)[/B]
LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so
LoadModule env_module modules/mod_env.so
LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so
LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so
LoadModule http2_module modules/mod_http2.so [B](Comment out or delete if not using HTTP2.)[/B]
LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so
LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so
LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module modules/mod_proxy_fcgi.so
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so
LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
LoadModule socache_shmcb_module modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so
LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so
LoadModule unixd_module modules/mod_unixd.so
# Enable Debugging Of Specific Modules
#LogLevel modulename:trace3
#LogLevel modulename:info
#LogLevel http2:info
PidFile /run/apache2.pid
User apache

modules.d/00_default_settings.conf:
Code: 
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
ContentDigest Off
<Directory />
	Options FollowSymLinks
	AllowOverride None [B](Disables .htaccess which you shouldn't be using anyway.  It's a major performance hit.  Whatever is in a .htaccess file should be in your Apache config.)[/B]
	Require all denied
</Directory>
EnableMMAP On
EnableSendfile On
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
FileETag MTime Size
<FilesMatch "^\.ht">
	Require all denied
</FilesMatch>
HostnameLookups Off
KeepAlive On
KeepAliveTimeout 3
LogLevel warn
MaxKeepAliveRequests 100
Protocols h2 http/1.1 [B](comment out or delete if you're not using HTTP2)[/B]
ServerName captainrex [B](change to your server's hostname)[/B]
ServerSignature Off
ServerTokens Prod
Timeout 30
TraceEnable off
UseCanonicalName Off


modules.d/00_mpm.conf: (These are my optimal settings. You need to experiment to find the optimal settings that satisfy you.)
Code: 
MaxRequestWorkers	256
ServerLimit		2
ThreadLimit		128
ThreadsPerChild		128

modules.d/01_mod_cache.conf: (Mod-cache is disabled on my system 99% of the time.)
Code: 
<IfDefine CACHE>
CacheDefaultExpire 5 [B](I use microcaching - short term caching of dynamic content.)[/B]
CacheEnable disk /
CacheDirLevels 2
CacheDirLength 1
CacheIgnoreHeaders Set-Cookie [B](Prevents caching of headers.)[/B]
CacheLock On
CacheLockMaxAge 1
CacheLockPath /tmp/mod_cache-lock
CacheRoot "/var/cache/apache2/" [B](Must be writeable by the server.)[/B]
</IfDefine>

modules.d/01_mod_expires.conf:
Code: 
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault						"access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/json				"access plus 5 minutes"
ExpiresByType application/xml				"access plus 5 minutes"
ExpiresByType text/xml					"access plus 5 minutes"
ExpiresByType application/xhtml+xml			"access plus 0 seconds"
ExpiresByType text/html					"access plus 0 seconds"
ExpiresByType application/x-web-app-manifest+json	"access plus 5 minutes"
ExpiresByType text/cache-manifest			"access plus 5 minutes"
ExpiresByType application/atom+xml			"access plus 1 hour"
ExpiresByType application/rss+xml			"access plus 1 hour"

modules.d/01_mod_headers.conf:
Code: 
<FilesMatch "\.(bz2|css|exe|flv|gif|ico|jpe?g|js|pdf|png|rar|swf|t?gz|zip)$">
	Header set Cache-Control "max-age=31536000, public"
</FilesMatch>
<FilesMatch "\.(htm|x?html)$">
        Header set Cache-Control "public, must-revalidate"
</FilesMatch>
Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
Header always set X-Frame-Options "DENY"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive,nofollow,noindex,noodp,nosnippet,noydir"
Header set X-UA-Compatible "IE=Edge"

modules.d/01_mod_ssl.conf: (Unnecessary if you're not using SSL.)
Code: 
SSLCipherSuite ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA
SSLHonorCipherOrder On
SSLOpenSSLConfCmd DHParameters /etc/ssl/apache2/dhparam_2048.pem
SSLProtocol all -SSLv2 -SSLv3
SSLSessionCache shmcb:/dev/shm/ssl_scache(512000)
SSLSessionCacheTimeout 43200
SSLStaplingCache shmcb:/dev/shm/stapling_cache(128000)
SSLStaplingResponderTimeout 5
SSLStaplingReturnResponderErrors off
SSLUseStapling On

No need in posting my fail2ban and mod_security configs.

Sample Wordpress domain template:
Code: 
VirtualHost xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80> [B](Can use ":80" instead)[/B]
<Directory "/var/www/www.example.com">
	Require all granted
	RewriteEngine On
	RewriteBase /
	RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
	RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
	####RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L,QSA] [B](Use this instead of the preceding line if using Mod_Cache.  Comment out preceding line)[/B]
</Directory>
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
DocumentRoot "/var/www/www.example.com"
<FilesMatch \.php$>
	SetHandler "proxy:unix:///var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/" [B](Connect to locally running instance of PHP-FPM socket.)[/B]
</FilesMatch>
Header always set X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN [B](Overrules default option.)[/B]
Header always set X-Xss-Protection "1; mode=block
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive,nofollow,noodp,nosnippet,noydir" [B](Overrules default option.)[/B]
ServerAdmin [email protected]
ServerName www.example.com
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80> [B](Same as line one.)[/B]
Redirect permanent / http://www.example.com/
ServerName example.com
</VirtualHost>

php-fpm.conf: (As I stated before, these are my custom settings. This may not work for you.)
Code: 
[global]
error_log = /var/log/php-fpm.log
emergency_restart_threshold = 2
emergency_restart_interval = 1m
process_control_timeout = 10s

[www]
listen = /var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock
listen.backlog = 65536
listen.owner = apache
listen.group = apache
user = apache
group = apache
pm = static
pm.max_children = 1
pm.max_requests = 1024

php.ini: (As I stated before, these are my custom settings. This may not work for you.)
Code: 
[PHP]
allow_url_fopen = On
always_populate_raw_post_data=-1
display_errors = Off
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT
expose_php = Off
log_errors = On
memory_limit = 128M [B][/B]
output_buffering = 4096
post_max_size = 64M [B][/B]
register_argc_argv = Off
request_order = "GP"
upload_max_filesize = 64M [B][/B]
variables_order = "GPCS"
[Date]
date.timezone = America/New_York [B](Change to whatever timezone you want.)[/B]
[Session]
session.cache_limiter =
session.cookie_httponly = On
session.cookie_secure = On [B](Comment or delete if not using SSL.)[/B]
session.gc_divisor = 1000
session.hash_bits_per_character = 5
session.save_handler = files
session.save_path = "/var/www/save_path" [B](Must be writeable by use PHP-FPM is running under.  Change to whatever directory you want.)[/B]
url_rewriter.tags = "a=href,area=href,frame=src,input=src,form=fakeentry"

Warning: Use this as a template to adjust your settings. Be sure to read both Apache's and PHP's documentation on what a configuration variable means. I know for a fact that CentOS and a lot of other distros have some funky scripting that ties into environment variables that won't allow this configuration to work if you're lazy and think you're going to do a copy and paste. Apache won't start if you do that. Keep backups of your working configs!!! Change one variable. Save. Restart. Benchmark. Compare.
 
Last edited:
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