Install Redis Object Cache for WordPress PHP 7 on Ubuntu 16.04

Redis-server can be used for WordPress object cache to speed up transient processing. Transients are temporary data objects used by WordPress which are stored in the MySQL database by defuault. Benchmarks reveal significant performance benefits with the PHP PECL Redis extension.

This guide is for Ubuntu 16.04. It provides a secure Redis installation for WordPress after telnet exploits were discovered. No root access will be granted to Redis following this guide and it will only listen on the loopback interface 127.0.0.1 preventing outside access.

Install Redis Object Cache for WordPress PHP 7 on Ubuntu 16.04

Using Redis object cache with WordPress requires two components speed boost your site

• Redis Server which stores the WordPress object cache
• Redis PHP extension (phpredis or predis) for php to communicate with the redis-server for storing and retrieving cache

phpredis is the the native c extension so is the fastest and obvious choice, the instructions for compiling from source follow the Redis server installation section.

If you prefer to use predis (redis extension written in php – (read slower)) then you do not need to install phpredis as the WordPress Redis cache plugin will default to predis.

Install Redis Server on Ubuntu 16.04

Install the essential build tools for compiling Redis

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install build-essential -y

These commands grab the latest stable Redis, extracts, builds and installs it.

The latest Redis version number can be checked here

cd /tmp
wget https://download.redis.io/redis-stable.tar.gz
tar xzf redis*
cd redis*
sudo make
sudo make install PREFIX=/usr
sudo mkdir /etc/redis
sudo cp redis.conf /etc/redis/
cd ..
rm -R redis*

Create a Redis user without any privileges: no login, shell and limited home directory.

sudo adduser --system --group --disabled-login redis --no-create-home --shell /bin/nologin --quiet

Ensure the redis user is there by checking the shadow file

cat /etc/passwd | grep redis

If it isn’t there run the add user command again.

Now add the redis user to the www-data group so unix sockets will have the write permissons

sudo usermod -g www-data redis

Configure Redis Server

Make some changes to the redis configuration

sudo mv /etc/redis/redis.conf /etc/redis/redis.conf.bak
sudo nano /etc/redis/redis.conf

Set daemonize to yes for the systemd service.

Change bind to only listen on localhost: 127.0.0.1 to prevent serious security issues

Set maxmemory to 50M so Redis doesn’t use more than 50 MB of RAM. Even with 40 plugins I have never seen Redis use more than 20-30 MB for WordPress object caching.

Change the maxmemory-policy to allkeys-lru which forces redis-server to delete old cache (least recently used objects) when the Redis server starts to run out of memory

# create a unix domain socket to listen on
#unixsocket /var/run/redis/redis.sock
# set permissions for the socket
#unixsocketperm 775
#requirepass passwordtouse
# bind to loopback if not using over network
bind 127.0.0.1
# port for tcpsocket
port 6379
daemonize yes
stop-writes-on-bgsave-error no
rdbcompression yes
# maximum memory allowed for redis
maxmemory 50M
# how redis will evict old objects - least recently used
maxmemory-policy allkeys-lru

Ctrl+X, Y and Enter to save

Create a folder for the pid file

sudo mkdir -p /var/run/redis

Change permissions so the redis user and www-data group owns it – the www-data will need access if you use unix sockets which are faster than TCP sockets.

sudo chown -R redis:www-data /var/run/redis

Now Redis needs a systemd service to autostart on boot on Ubuntu 16.04.

Redis Server Systemd Script

Create the redis-server systemd script

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/redis-server.service

Paste the Redis server systemd script

[Unit]
Description=Redis Datastore Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
PIDFile=/var/run/redis/redis.pid
User=redis
Group=www-data
ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p /var/run/redis
ExecStartPre=/bin/chown redis:www-data /var/run/redis
ExecStart=/sbin/start-stop-daemon --start --pidfile /var/run/redis/redis.pid --umask 007 --exec /usr/bin/redis-server -- /etc/redis/redis.conf
ExecReload=/bin/kill -USR2 $MAINPID
ExecStop=/usr/bin/redis-cli shutdown
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Ctrl+X, Y and Enter to Save and Exit.

Enable the redis-server systemd script

sudo systemctl enable redis-server

Start the redis-server systemd script

sudo service redis-server start

Confirm Redis Daemon is Secure

We are going to make sure Redis is listening on the loopback adapter and as the redis user.

First use netstat to show the listening connections

netstat -lntp

Find the line containing 127.0.0.1 the loopback adapter listening on port 6379

tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:6379          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      11391/redis-server

You can also make sure the Redis process is running as the redis user we specified

ps aux | grep redis

If redis said root that would be a security problem – if Redis was hacked it would have root privileges.

redis     11391  0.0  0.4  38020  2160 pts/0    Tl   21:03   0:00 /usr/bin/redis-server 127.0.0.1:6379

Install phpredis PHP 7

Install php7 development tools and git

sudo apt install php7.0-dev git -y

Then git clone the latest phpredis, build and install it.

cd /tmp
git clone https://github.com/phpredis/phpredis
cd phpredis
phpize
./configure
sudo make
make install

Now the Redis php7 PECL extension must be enabled for Apache or nginx

Enable Redis PHP PECL Extension for nginx

For Apache and nginx with php7.0-fpm, create the redis.ini file

sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/redis.ini

Add this extension line

extension=redis.so

Ctrl+X, Y and Enter to Save and exit.

Symbolically link the redis.ini – this way it can be easily disabled

sudo ln -s /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/redis.ini /etc/php/7.0/fpm/conf.d/30-redis.ini
sudo ln -s /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/redis.ini /etc/php/7.0/cli/conf.d/30-redis.ini

Then restart php7.0-fpm

sudo service php7.0-fpm restart

Enable Redis PHP PECL Extension for Apache

Create a redis.ini file for Apache

sudo ln -s /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/redis.ini /etc/php/7.0/apache2/conf.d/30-redis.ini

Add this line for the Redis extension

extension=redis.so

Ctrl+X, Y and Enter to Save

Then reload Apache

sudo service apache2 reload

All that is left is to install the WordPress Redis plugin, enable it and enjoy the speed!

Future guides will be made for monitoring the Redis daemon with this tool and monitor phpredis too.

Sources

Adapted from this guide