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Object Caching

Altis Cloud environments come with a Redis service for rapid storage and retrieval of data.

Altis provides a low-level integration with WordPress's object caching system out of the box to keep your application as performant as possible. The object cache is used for the following by default:

The object cache is generally used to "offload" work from the database servers, using constant-time lookups rather than complex relational queries.

Transients

Transients are a feature of WordPress that behave similarly to the Options API. The intention is to use the store data that should expire, or should not always be expected to be available. You might use these to cache the results of a GET API requests for example.

It is important to note that a transient's expiry time is the maximum amount time it can be cached for.

An example use case might look like the following:

function fetch_posts() : ?array {
    $cache = get_transient( 'external-posts' );
    if ( ! empty( $cache ) ) {
        return $cache;
    }

    $response = wp_remote_get( 'https://api.tumblr.com/v2/blog/staff.tumblr.com/posts' );

    if ( is_wp_error( $response ) ) {
        return null;
    }

    if ( 200 !== wp_remote_retrieve_response_code( $response ) ) {
        return null;
    }

    $result = json_decode( wp_remote_retrieve_response_body( $response ) );

    set_transient( 'external-posts', $result, HOUR_IN_SECONDS );

    return $result;
}

set_transient( string $name, mixed $value, int $expiration )

Stores a transient value. The $value can be anything and might be serialized if anything other than a scalar value is given. $expiration is the maximum amount of time in seconds the value should be stored for.

get_transient( string $name )

Retrieves a transient value.

set_site_transient( string $name, mixed $value, int $expiration )

Network level version of set_transient().

get_site_transient( string $name )

Network level version of get_transient().

delete_transient( string $name )

Deletes a transient by name.

delete_site_transient( string $name )

Network level version of delete_transient().

Object Caching Functions

In your application code the object cache exposes a set of functions for you to use directly. It is recommended to use these functions where you have code carrying out repetitive CPU intensive processes, and in some cases for caching complex templates like menus.

These functions are a lower level interface than transients, and have the benefit of accepting cache groups and timestamps for expiry. Using cache groups can

wp_cache_set( string $key, mixed $data, string $group = '', ?int $expiry )

Cache any arbitrary value, with an optional group and expiry time. $expiry can be a timestamp for a future date.

wp_cache_replace( string $key, mixed $data, string $group = '', ?int $expiry )

This is the same as wp_cache_set() with the exception that it will not add the value to the cache if it does not already exist.

wp_cache_get( string $key, string $group = '', bool $force = false, &$found = null )

Retrieve a value from the cache. The $force option if true will force update the in-memory cache for the current PHP process.

If the value you need to cache can be false or other falsey value you can set the $found variable by reference and check it to see if a value was found or if the object cache does not contain a value for the key and group yet. For example:

$cache = wp_cache_get( 'posts', 'my-app', true, $found );
if ( $found ) {
    return $cache;
}

wp_cache_delete( string $key, string $group = '' )

Deletes an item from the obejct cache.

wp_cache_flush( int $delay = 0 )

Flushes the entire object cache with an optional delay in seconds to wait.

wp_cache_add_non_persistent_groups( array $groups )

Passing a list of group names will change the object caching behaviour for those groups to avoid storing values in the persistent cache.

Use this if you need to only cache values for the current PHP process.

Scaling and Performance

While Redis is a type of database like the MySQL store, it has vastly different performance and scaling characteristics. The Altis team manages the Redis server size based on traffic, CPU usage, subscription, and other metrics.

On environment tiers with high-availability, a hot-standby replica is established in a different availability zone to protect against underlying hardware or data center failures.

Use of Redis via the transient or object cache APIs (as detailed below) generally uses Redis as a key-value store, which serves to improve performance as lookups in Redis can be constant-time (O(1)).

Unlike the primary database, writes to the Redis datastore can safely be made from the frontend in a performant way. Note that as with any component of your codebase, care should still be taken to ensure performant behaviour at scale. Excessive writes to the object cache may require increasing the infrastructure provisioned for your environment, and additional charges may apply if you significantly exceed typical usage.

Common Performance Problems

The most common problems we experience with environments when scaling Redis are excessive eviction and network link saturation.

Excessive Eviction

Excessive eviction occurs when Redis has too many values stored compared to the available memory. Redis will automatically manage entries using the allkeys-lfu eviction policy, which removes the least-frequently-used values.

When storing many values, it's possible for frequently used items to be evicted, as Redis isn't able to hold all the items in memory at once. This will cause caches to expire almost immediately, and can lead to massive performance problems or excessive database usage.

Some amount of eviction is normal, particularly when using key-based caching (eg including version numbers or timestamps in the key). WordPress uses key-based caching in some places, so some eviction will always occur.

The Altis team monitors your eviction rate and will alert you if it exceeds typical values. Information about your eviction rate can be provided on request to Altis support.

While Altis manages your infrastructure for you and scales environments appropriately for your usage, it's possible to saturate the network link between the application servers and the cache servers even with relatively low usage.

Storing excessively large values in the object cache which are frequently access can lead to saturation. This can occur when storing large values in a single, autoloaded key, such as large serialized arrays. (Typically, this only occurs for values under 100MB in size.)

While there are some cases where storing large values in Redis makes sense, generally this usage should be avoided. Instead, use functions like wp_cache_get_multiple() when dealing with many independent values, or store blobs directly in S3.

The Altis team monitors your network link bandwidth and will alert you if it exceeds typical values. In order to ensure the stability of your environment, Altis may require you to redesign your object cache usage if you continually saturate network links.

Configuration

Object cache behaviour is generally not user configurable, and is handled automatically for you by the Cloud module.

Note: Any changes to the cache configuration are considered to void your warranty, except as directed by the Altis team. Adjusting any configuration may cause catastrophic errors in your environments.

The Redis integration can be toggled using the following configuration:

{
    "extra": {
        "altis": {
            "modules": {
                "cloud": {
                    "redis": false
                }
            }
        }
    }
}