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Dear Marco,
We are using Amazon CloudFront, S3, EC2, ElastiCache and W3TC plugin. We are using 3rd party in front of our domain to protect bot attacks and watch incoming traffic. We are having following issue.
“W3TC generates some files after you login to admin area and those files does not exist on local server and S3 bucket which breaks styling of Preprod logged pages as admin and same for Member Area logged as Member”.
First I cleared cache/minify files on Preprod server then I visited https://preprod.australianturfclub.com.au domain in Chrome Incognito window and checked minify/cache folder. The system generated files and stored in cache folder. See screenshot here at https://ibb.co/hBLshDr
Then I visited https://preprod.australianturfclub.com.au/wp-admin/ site in Firefox Private window and visited site logged as Admin. The system generated two more CSS files and stored in cache folder. See screenshot here at https://ibb.co/kMY08Gd
Then I visited https://preprod.australianturfclub.com.au/member-landing site in Chrome Incognito window and login as test Member and uploaded profile photo, added products and went to checkout page. All test went well without any error. The system generated three more CSS files and stored in cache folder. See screenshot here at https://ibb.co/Ht89cry
I hope that all above steps explained.
Now for some reason all above 5 new CSS files in yellow highlighted are only stored in local server. They do not upload on S3 bucket. So it means they serve locally and that is the issue we see broken web pages after Admin and Member login because they do not exist on S3 and CloudFront.
For your information, all our static assets behaviours are going to S3 origin and Default CloudFront behaviour to 3rd party. See screenshot here at https://ibb.co/wMv9JK1.
There are two methods to resolve this issue. See below:
1. Use /app/cache/* behavior in CloudFront
2. Do not use /app/cache/* behavior in CloudFrontUsing 2nd method, it seems alright. But when we use 1st method, I found one bug that when we purge cache and Logged in as Admin and view pages then W3TC do not generate minify files on local machine. See screenshot here at https://ibb.co/d5HjtM4.
As soon as I removed /app/cache/* behavior in CloudFront then missing files are generated in local machine. My IT Security advised me to Bypass Kasada and point to ALB and test again. I did Purge Cache All and then visit Front site and Minify files are generated as normal and stored in local folder. But when I visit Backend site as Admin, all new minify files in above screenshot are not generating on local machine and get 403 error. See above screenshot.
Just bear in mind, this happen when we Purge Cache All feature in W3TC. If we do not Purge cache then we will be fine using Solution 1.
Can you please advise us why some CSS and JS files are not generating on local machine?
Regards,
SaifHello,
Thank you for reaching out and I am happy to assist you with this.
To confirm, you are also using the W3TC CDN feature to upload files to CDN, or are you using some other plugin for this?
If you are using the W3TC CDN module, can you please check if the option “Host minified CSS and JS files” is enabled in Performance>CDN>General?
Is the problem with both CSS and JS files or only CSS files are not being uploaded to the CDN?
Since the path of the files is modified (normally it should be wp-content/cache/minify/), you can try adding the path to the Custom file list: in Performance>CDN>Advanced.Thanks!
Hi Marco,
Thanks for your response. Can you make this post private? Do you provide Premium Support?
In regards to your question, yes I confirmed that we are using CloudFront as CDN and “Host minified CSS and JS files” is already enabled by default. I guess both CSS and JS files are not uploading when you visit website after logged in as Admin. Please check my screenshots in previous email, I mentioned clearly. I also shared CloudFront behaviours.
Just to advise, we are also using AWS WAF to protect our admin website. And we have multiple production server environments using AWS ALB, S3, CloudFront and ASG. We also use Bedrock environment so our cache folder path is /app/cache/minify and full path is .
I also tried to add {wp_content_dir}/cache/* in Custom files under CDN > Advanced > Custom files
but it did not help and 922a1.css and b2ac7.css files which are generated after we logged in as Admin into backend site and those files do not upload to CDN.Do you have any idea? Why these files do not upload to CDN? Please for reference, check my screenshots from first email.
Regards,
SaifHello Saif,
I’ve removed the URL.
You can reach out directly via the plugin in Performance>Support, or via the website contact form.
The file is generated in the /app/cache/minify/ folder. In order to be served from the CDN, you may need to purge the CDN so that new files are uploaded.
If all other files are uploaded, that means that you do not need to add the path to the custom files list.Thanks!
Hi Marco,
Thanks to remove URL. We figured out why minify files were not generating under/app/cache/minify/ folder. When we point our domain -removed- to our own AWS CloudFront then minify files do not generate locally as Admin login and Member login visited pages but when we switch domain to Kasada CloudFront domain then it generates files.
Do you have any idea? Why is that? By the way for your info, Kasada is our vendor who looks after all traffic. Also I noticed that each time when we purge cache, we get error “The unsuccessful transfer queue has unresolved errors. Empty the queue to restore normal operation” See screenshot here at . We need to upload manually to CDN so than all minify files serve via CDN url like
Why we need to manually upload? Why not W3TC uploads automatically?
Also I went to Performance > Support and see few support option.
Which support we should do? Also can we bundle? See screenshot here at -removed-
I will wait for your soonest reply.
Regards,
SaifHi Marco,
I am still waiting for your reply of my previous email which I sent on last Friday 2nd Sep 2022. Could you please reply that would be good.
Regards,
SaifHi Marco,
Can you please continue this ticket privately because it has too many details of our set up.
Regards,
SaifHello,
Sorry for the late reply I was trying to replicate the problem.
By default, minify should not be enabled for logged-in users so you should disable this option.
This is a very peculiar use case, and honestly, I’ve never had a chance to encounter this kind of issue.
As for The unsuccessful transfer queue, you should click the button near it and try to re-upload files.
if works – it’s a temporary issue linked to server resources.
You are using CDN Type: Push, and this means that invalidation of the files needs to be done manually.
The Only purge CDN manually option, if enabled is there to ensure the CDN purge is done manually due to the huge AWS bills for invalidations.
You can always submit a bug report in Performance>Support.Thanks!
Dear Marco,
Thanks for your reply. I enabled “Disable Minify for logged-in users” option and it is working now.
We really wanted to serve minify cache files from CDN for logged-in users but we respect your feedback.
Can you do me favour, our post is still public. Can you please make it private?
Also just to advise that we are currently review and testing our sites, so we will be back soon.
Regards,
SaifHi Marco,
Hope you are well. We have recently launched our new project. We are using 2 instances for Production and one for Staging server. All looks good but when few users connected to wp-admin then site gets slow.
Also we purchased PRO licence ands our License key is removed.
Now we need your best advise to full feature of PRO version. So for your information, our settings as below:
Page Cache Method: Disk Enhanced
Minify Cache Method: Disk
Database Cache Method: Memcached (We are using Amazon ElstiCache)
Browser Cache: Enable
CDN Type: Amazon CloudFront Over S3Now could you please advise what is the best cache method for all the aove and also advise for the following:
1. Should we use Object cache? If we use then what would be cache method?
2. Should we use Fragment Cache? If we use then what would be cache method?
3. Should we use FSD CDN?Last but not least, some articles says “W3TC’s database stores the results of MySQL database queries. While this feature does sound useful, we recommend keeping it disabled and using an object cache instead.”
I am confused. Can we use both Database and Object cache? Please give us your best recommendation and answer my above questions.
Thanks & regards,
SaifI forgot to say that when we had Object cache enabled “disk” that it wouldn’t allow us to update pages. Why is that?
Hello Saif,
Thank you for your feedback.
I’ve removed the license key as this is a public forum, and as I can see the license key is not yet applied to your installation.
The configuration depends on a lot of things. The optimal W3 Total Cache configuration takes into account a number of factors: your theme, your plugins, and the technologies available on the server. Since everyone’s site and traffic and theme are different, there is no one size fits all solution.
We are going to perform tests on your website, and provide you with some tips and guidance on what you need to do or change in order to achieve the best performance for your website.
The Caching method selected for the Page Cache minify and DB Cache are good and recommended in most cases. For Object Caching and Database Cache, it’s not recommended to use Disk-based caching so I would advise either using memory-based caching like Memcached or Redis, or not using it at all.Object Cache allows getting data from the database more efficiently. Its purpose is similar to what Database Cache does. But compared to Database Cache, Object cache is more efficient as it allows the process of fewer requests.
As a rule of thumb, Object Cache is not worth using on shared hosting for the same reason as Database Cache, i.e. database is often not the performance bottleneck, but disk input-output operations.
However, like Database Cache, it can be beneficial to use if you are on VPS or a dedicated server, get a lot of traffic, and have a lot of comments. Also, if you know that database is the bottleneck of your website performance, then Object Cache (like Database Cache) is beneficial to use. But in this case, it’s recommended to use Opcode, Memcached, or Redis options as mentioned previously.FSD CDN is great but sometimes not necessary. It depends on how good is your server and whether you are serving the website for local or worldwide users.
Thanks!
Hello Marco,
Hope you are well. Thanks for your email and recommendation. You mentioned in your previous email that you are going to perform tests on our website, and provide us with some tips and guidance on what we need to do or change in order to achieve the best performance for our website.
How did you go test our website?
I enabled Object Cache using Memcached on Staging site but it did not improve permeance much. Just to refresh your mind that we are using AWS Services using EC2, Application Load Balancer, S3, ElastiCache and CloudFront and we are using On-demand instances so all our servers are standalone and not shared hosting.
We are currently using below W3TC caching method, can you please to recommend or advise what should be best caching setting:
Page Cache Method: Disk Enhanced
Minify Cache Method: Disk
Database Cache Method: Memcached (We are using Amazon ElstiCache)
Object Cache Method: Memcached (Currently enable on Staging site)
Browser Cache: Enable
CDN Type: Amazon CloudFront Over S3Can you please advise what are the best settings to improve performance for our website?
Regards,
SaifHello,
Thank you for your feedback. I forgot to mention that the in-depth Audit of your website is Premium support. This is because this includes the Audit of all the plugins, servers, and impact of the 3rd party resources, and for that we need access.
So the optimization of your website may be out of any plugin’s hands and possibilities.
I hope this clarifies my reply.Hi Marco,
Thanks for your email. If we would like to proceed Premium support then Which support we should do? I mean in your Premium Support there is only one selection we can select. Can we bundle?
It is better if you advise what premium support are required to audit our website to improve performance for our website?
Also please advise what access you are required? Do you need only our WordPress admin access or do you need AWS console access as well. Please clarify.
Regards,
SaifHello,
Thank you for your feedback.
As I’ve mentioned before, I would suggest the Performance Audit.
And yes I would need the WP-admin access as well as the AWS console access.
We’ll of course provide the form for credentials submission.Thanks!
Hi Marco,
Hope you are well. Thanks for your reply. Sorry for the late reply as I was busy with some family stuff.
I discussed with my IT team and they advised me that they can setup VM with Team Viewer access and give login details of Team Viewer so then you can access all our system including AWS console and WordPress Admin area.
I am not sure what is your location. You know that we are from Sydney. Is it possible if you can organize your time? Ands let us know your timezone when you would like to access our system that would be good.
Regards,
SaifDear Marco,
Hope you are well. I am just following up my last email about Team Viewer access and your time. Can you please reply ASAP. We got Database Spikes between 12:30 to 12:45pm today 11th Nov 2022 Sydney time. Even though last month we doubled up our database machine type in AWS > RDS. So not sure why it happened today.
I also have an another question, today we filled up your Support form in W3TC > Support dashboard and I filled up the form then it takes me to PayPal payment page. We do not have PayPal account. Do you have an alternative payment method?
Last but not least, if you have WhatsApp support, can you please add me. My WhatsApp number is -removed-
I will look forward for your soonest reply.
Regards,
SaifHello,
I’ve replied to the email sent via the W3TC support channel.
Please continue the correspondence there so we can avoid duplicating the answers.
Thanks!Dear Marco,
Hope you are well. I replied to your previous email on 23rd Nov and no one replied to my email. I sent to customer-support@w3-edge.com email address. I do not want to reply here because you said communicate via support email but no one replied. SO I thought posit it here. Can you please confirm your support hour and terms and conditions of your premium support. If you do not provide one-to-one support via Teamviewer, then you may need to sign the ATC’s non-disclosure agreement.
In regards to Billing, your support form in W3TC dashboard takes to PayPal login page. How would we pay by Credit Card? Do you have payment page?
I will look forward your soonest reply.
Regards,
Saif
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