Install, configure, verify memcached on Ubuntu

PHP memcache and memcached extensions

Because PHP has no native support for memcache, you must install an extension for PHP to use it. There are two PHP extensions available and it’s important to decode which to use:

• memcache (no d), an older but very popular extension that is not maintained regularly. The memcache extension currently does not work with PHP 7.

  PHP documentation for memcache

  The exact name is php5-memcache for Ubuntu and php-pecl-memcache for CentOS

• memcached (with a d), a newer and maintained extension that should be compatible with PHP 7.

  PHP documentation for memcached

  The exact name is php5-memcached for Ubuntu and php-pecl-memcached for CentOS

For simplicity, we use the PHP memcache extension in this guide although we provide examples for both when configuring Magento to use memcache.

Install and configure memcached on Ubuntu

This section provides instructions to install memcached on Ubuntu. For additional information, consult the memcached wiki.

We recommend using memcached version 3.0.5 or later.

To install and configure memcached on Ubuntu:

1. As a user with root privileges, enter the following command:

   1
   2
   apt-get -y update
   apt-get -y install php5-memcache memcached
   

2. Change the memcached configuration setting for CACHESIZE and -l:

   1. Open /etc/memcached.conf in a text editor.
   2. Locate the -m parameter.
   3. Change its value to at least 1GB
   4. Locate the -l parameter.
   5. Change its value to 127.0.0.1 or localhost
   6. Save your changes to memcached.conf and exit the text editor.

   7. Restart memcached.

      1
      service memcached restart
      

3. Restart your web server.

   For Apache, service apache2 restart

4. Continue with the next section.

Verify memcached works before installing Magento

We recommend testing memcached to make sure it works before you install Magento. Doing so takes only a few minutes and can simplify troubleshooting later.

Verify memcached is recognized by the web server

To verify memcached is recognized by the web server:

1. Create a phpinfo.php file in the web server’s docroot:

   1
   2
   3
   4
   <?php
   
   // Show all information, defaults to INFO_ALL
   phpinfo();
   

2. Go to that page in your web browser.

   For example, http://192.0.2.1/phpinfo.php

3. Make sure memcached displays as follows:

   

   Verify you’re using memcached version 3.0.5 or later.

   If memcache does not display, restart the web server and refresh the browser page. If it still does not display, verify you installed the php-pecl-memcache extension.

Verify memcached can cache data

This test uses a PHP script to verify that memcached can store and retrieve cache data.

For more information about this test, see this digitalocean tutorial.

Create cache-test.php in the web server’s docroot with the following contents:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
if (class_exists('Memcache')) {
    $meminstance = new Memcache();
} else {
    $meminstance = new Memcached();
}

$meminstance->addServer("<memcache hostname or ip>", <memcache port>);

$result = $meminstance->get("test");

if ($result) {
    echo $result;
} else {
    echo "No matching key found.  Refresh the browser to add it!";
    $meminstance->set("test", "Successfully retrieved the data!") or die("Couldn't save anything to memcached...");
}

where <memcache hostname or ip> is either localhost, 127.0.0.1, or the memcache hostname or IP address. <memcache port> is its listen port; by default, 11211.

Go to that page in a web browser.

For example, http://192.0.2.1/cache-test.php

The first time you go to the page, the following displays: No matching key found. Refresh the browser to add it!

Refresh the browser. The message changes to Successfully retrieved the data!

Finally, you can view the memcache keys using Telnet:

1
telnet localhost <memcache port>

At the prompt, enter

1
stats items

The result is similar to the following:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
STAT items:2:number 1
STAT items:2:age 106
STAT items:2:evicted 0
STAT items:2:evicted_nonzero 0
STAT items:2:evicted_time 0
STAT items:2:outofmemory 0
STAT items:2:tailrepairs 0
STAT items:2:reclaimed 0
STAT items:2:expired_unfetched 0
STAT items:2:evicted_unfetched 0

Flush memcache storage and quit Telnet:

1
2
flush_all
quit

Additional information about the Telnet test

Next step

Configure Magento to use memcached