Drupal developers use a number of techniques to improve the performance of Drupal websites. The first and foremost thing to do, when it comes to improving the performance of a Drupal website, is a thorough analysis of the website. Our Drupalmint Drupal developers have helped hundreds of business owners optimize the performance of their websites with simple techniques. Although there are umpteen numbers of tricks to optimize the Drupal website for the best performance, here, we focus on one of the easiest methods of getting optimal speed of the Drupal website. Simply by altering a few settings, Drupal developers can enhance the performance of the website.

Drupal Optimize APC Settings

Alternative PHP Cache (APC)

It is important to install and configure APC in the web server. Since APC caches the compiled op-code of the PHP installation, it is essential that every server has APC installed on it. The two prominent benefits of installing and configuring APC on the server include reduction of the time taken by the server to render pages, and the reduction on RAM usage of the server in rendering the page. As far as APC settings are concerned, there are two settings namely, “shm_size” and “stat” that can enhance the performance of the website. The shm_size determines the memory allocation to caching the websites PHP code. According Drupal developer Experts a starting point of 64 MB is good for a Drupal 7 website. It is also important to monitor APC via apc.php to decide on the optimal values for the server and the website.

The “stat” settings, on the other hand, determine whether APC checks the original PHP source files before using the cached version. Setting the stat value to 0 tells the APC that source files do not change. While this can enhance the performance of the website, you need to exhibit caution while doing this. If you update the source codes of your website frequently, then this might not be the right thing to do.

Although the APC settings might seem to be a child’s play, be informed that only professionals should alter the settings. If you feel that your Drupal website is sluggish, you can contact our Drupal consultants and get their suggestions on how to optimize your Drupal website for the best performance.