Performance Optimization

• Before we dive deep into Varnish, I’d like to get a feel for the various performance improvements anyone can make to speed up their Drupal. What’s the process you think through when optimizing a site?
  • DB Tuning
  • Boost
  • Memcache
  • Redis
  • APC
  • Varnish
  • Module Choices!

Varnish

• What exactly is Varnish?
• When researching Drupal performance optimization, I came across a lot of references to APC and Varnish. What is the difference?
• Is this for anonymous or authenticated traffic?
• Is the Varnish module required to utilize Varnish with Drupal?
• What are the steps needed to install and utilize Varnish? (Broad terms, not actual terminal commands)
• Does SSL affect Varnish?
• What doesn’t Varnish do? (What needs to be done by Drupal, or other software instead?)
• How does Varnish affect a dev/staging/live workflow? Does Varnish need to be instlaled on the local machine?