Optimize Vtiger CRM 7x: Understanding Meme Cache & Varnish

Vtiger CRM Open Source version 7.x does not come with built-in support for caching mechanisms like Memcached or Varnish by default. However, you can integrate caching solutions like Memcached or Varnish with your Vtiger CRM 7x setup to improve performance by reducing database load and speeding up response times for frequently accessed data.

1. Memcached Integration

Memcached is a high-performance distributed memory caching system that can be used to cache objects and data for faster access.

Steps to Integrate Memcached with Vtiger CRM:

• Install Memcached:
• First, you need to install Memcached on your server. This can be done via package managers like apt (for Ubuntu) or yum (for CentOS): sudo apt install memcached
• PHP Memcached Extension:
• You also need the PHP Memcached extension to enable communication between your PHP code and Memcached: sudo apt install php-memcached
• Configure Vtiger to Use Memcached:
• Edit the config.inc.php file in the root of your Vtiger installation. Add the following lines to enable caching: $MEMCACHE_ENABLED = true; $MEMCACHE_SERVER = 'localhost'; // Change this if Memcached is running on a different server $MEMCACHE_PORT = 11211; // Default Memcached port
• Once Memcached is enabled, you can modify or extend Vtiger’s core functions to cache specific data like frequently queried records or modules.

2. Varnish Integration

Varnish Cache is a web application accelerator (reverse proxy) that caches HTTP responses to reduce the load on the web server and deliver pages faster.

Steps to Integrate Varnish with Vtiger CRM:

• Install Varnish:
• Install Varnish on your server: sudo apt install varnish
• Configure Varnish:
• By default, Varnish listens on port 6081. You will need to change the web server (Apache/Nginx) to listen on a different port (e.g., 8080) and configure Varnish to listen on port 80 (the default HTTP port).
• In the Varnish configuration file (/etc/varnish/default.vcl), set up backend configurations like this: backend default { .host = "127.0.0.1"; .port = "8080"; }
• Adjust Apache/Nginx:
• Change the default port of Apache or Nginx to port 8080 to work with Varnish. For Apache, update the file /etc/apache2/ports.conf: Listen 8080
• Cache Static Content:
• Configure Varnish to cache static assets (like CSS, JS, and images) to improve performance.
• Bypass for Dynamic Pages:
• Vtiger CRM’s dynamic content (like module data or user-specific information) should not be cached by Varnish. You need to configure Varnish to bypass caching for dynamic pages by identifying URLs with query parameters or specific headers.

3. Benefits of Caching Solutions

• Memcached can significantly reduce the number of database queries by caching frequently accessed data in memory.
• Varnish can improve response times for static content and reduce the load on the web server by caching HTTP responses.

4. Considerations:

• Caching must be configured carefully for CRM systems, as some data is user-specific and frequently updated, so not everything should be cached.
• Ensure that dynamic content (like user login sessions or personalized data) is excluded from the cache, especially with Varnish.

Conclusion:

The best Vtiger hosting solutions consists of Vtiger CRM 7.x does not always come with pre-built maintenance for some caching mechanisms like Varnish or Memcached by default. On the other hand, you can also incorporate caching solutions such as Memcached or Varnish along with your Vtiger CRM version 7x setup to increase performance by decreasing load on the database and boosting response times for regularly retrieved data.