For any web application, caching plays a vital role in performance. We all know about Magento as a powerful e-commerce framework. Its community version though is slower. However, there are ways to speed it up as well.
One such tool is Amazon's ElastiCache. ElastiCache supports Memcached which is an open-source in-memory caching engine. Memcached is suitable if the data is large and distributed on multiple servers, and that’s the reason ElastiCache supports the engine. For more on Amazon's ElastiCache, refer to its official page.
Magento has numerous included files in a single request which means that a good amount of server load can be curbed through AWS ElastiCache. It reduces server load by storing cache in different nodes. This caching mechanism helps take care of Magento’s heavy hits on the database by caching data away from it. To enable Memcached into Magento, modify main configuration file of Magento i.e. local.xml
Steps to implement ElastiCache with Magento :
1) Get all AWS cache cluster nodes.
2) Open local.xml Magento from the 'app/etc/local.xml'
- Inside global tag below <session_save><![CDATA[files]]></session_save> add the following piece of code -
<cache>
<backend>memcached</backend><!-- apc / memcached / empty=file -->
<memcached><!-- memcached cache backend related config -->
<servers><!-- any number of server nodes can be included -->
<server>
<host><![CDATA[yourserver1.n3vrvk.0001.use1.cache.amazonaws.com]]></host>
<port><![CDATA[11211]]></port>
<persistent><![CDATA[1]]></persistent>
</server>
<server>
<host><![CDATA[yourserver1.n3vrvk.0002.use1.cache.amazonaws.com]]></host>
<port><![CDATA[11211]]></port>
<persistent><![CDATA[1]]></persistent>
</server>
<server>
<host><![CDATA[yourserver1.n3vrvk.0003.use1.cache.amazonaws.com]]></host>
<port><![CDATA[11211]]></port>
<persistent><![CDATA[1]]></persistent>
</server>
<server>
<host><![CDATA[yourserver1.n3vrvk.0004.use1.cache.amazonaws.com]]></host>
<port><![CDATA[11211]]></port>
<persistent><![CDATA[1]]></persistent>
</server>
<server>
<host><![CDATA[yourserver1.n3vrvk.0005.use1.cache.amazonaws.com]]></host>
<port><![CDATA[11211]]></port>
<persistent><![CDATA[1]]></persistent>
</server>
</servers>
<compression><![CDATA[0]]></compression>
<cache_dir><![CDATA[]]></cache_dir>
<hashed_directory_level><![CDATA[]]></hashed_directory_level>
<hashed_directory_umask><![CDATA[]]></hashed_directory_umask>
<file_name_prefix><![CDATA[myCache_]]></file_name_prefix>
</memcached>
</cache>
Your local.xml file will look like the screenshot below.
3) Save your file and enjoy your Magento store.
For more details information on creating AWS ElastiCache nodes, read this blog.
<config>
<global>
<install>
<date><![CDATA[Thu, 01 Nov 2012 09:24:16 +0000]]></date>
</install>
<crypt>
<key><![CDATA[test]]></key>
</crypt>
<disable_local_modules>false</disable_local_modules>
<resources>
<db>
<table_prefix><![CDATA[]]></table_prefix>
</db>
<default_setup>
<connection>
<host><![CDATA[Your_database_hostname]]></host>
<username><![CDATA[your_database_username]]></username>
<password><![CDATA[your_database_password]]></password>
<dbname><![CDATA[your_databaseName]]></dbname>
<initStatements><![CDATA[SET NAMES utf8]]></initStatements>
<model><![CDATA[mysql4]]></model>
<type><![CDATA[pdo_mysql]]></type>
<pdoType><![CDATA[]]></pdoType>
<active>1</active>
</connection>
</default_setup>
</resources>
<session_save><![CDATA[files]]></session_save>
<cache>
<backend>memcached</backend><!-- apc / memcached / empty=file -->
<memcached><!-- memcached cache backend related config -->
<servers><!-- any number of server nodes can be included -->
<server>
<host><![CDATA[server1.0001.use1.cache.amazonaws.com]]></host>
<port><![CDATA[11211]]></port>
<persistent><![CDATA[1]]></persistent>
</server>
<server>
<host><![CDATA[server2.0002.use1.cache.amazonaws.com]]></host>
<port><![CDATA[11211]]></port>
<persistent><![CDATA[1]]></persistent>
</server>
<server>
<host><![CDATA[server3.0003.use1.cache.amazonaws.com]]></host>
<port><![CDATA[11211]]></port>
<persistent><![CDATA[1]]></persistent>
</server>
<server>
<host><![CDATA[server4.0004.use1.cache.amazonaws.com]]></host>
<port><![CDATA[11211]]></port>
<persistent><![CDATA[1]]></persistent>
</server>
<server>
<host><![CDATA[server5.0005.use1.cache.amazonaws.com]]></host>
<port><![CDATA[11211]]></port>
<persistent><![CDATA[1]]></persistent>
</server>
</servers>
<compression><![CDATA[0]]></compression>
<cache_dir><![CDATA[]]></cache_dir>
<hashed_directory_level><![CDATA[]]></hashed_directory_level>
<hashed_directory_umask><![CDATA[]]></hashed_directory_umask>
<file_name_prefix><![CDATA[iwsCache_]]></file_name_prefix>
</memcached>
</cache>
</global>
<admin>
<routers>
<adminhtml>
<args>
<frontName><![CDATA[admin]]></frontName>
</args>
</adminhtml>
</routers>
</admin>
</config>