Enabling TMPFS for SlickStack FastCGI Cache
SlickStack supports TMPFS option for Nginx FastCGI cache by enabling the FCGI_CACHE_TMPFS variable in the config for LEMP stacks e.g. for dedicated WordPress cloud servers….
Is enabling TMPFS really faster than without it when you activate it specifically for Nginx FastCGI cache, or does Ubuntu (Linux) already use RAM memory in such a way that is enough for most cases?
Since Linode supports swap disks to be setup regardless of the script you are using, how would that factor in here? LEMP scripts don't usually config disk OS / hardware settings??
p.s. re:: Linode swap, is there any time you shouldn't use it?
1 Reply
mjones
Linode Staff
I've not used TMPFS this way personally, but it looks like it would provide a performance increase in some scenarios. Since all Linodes use SSD drives the performance for FastCGI caching should be pretty good anyways, but having everything loaded into RAM could be a bit faster. The only thing to keep in mind is that you'll need to have enough RAM to run everything in your LEMP stack and still have some left over for FastCGI. In a WordPress setup, the other major user of memory will be MySQL in most cases. I would recommend at least a Linode 4GB for this kind of setup, just to make sure there's plenty of memory.
A swap disk wouldn't be used in the same way here, since it's generally only used once RAM has been exhausted or doesn't have enough space remaining. Even then, only certain processes are set up to use the swap disk when needed by default. I'd recommend having a swap disk in your configuration in most cases, as some processes will try to use it when needed and it can help avoid OOM events, but there's no need to try and work it in as part of a caching setup unless you have something very specific in mind.