WP Super Cache is an available plugin for Wordpress installations to store cached versions of your dynamic PHP pages. Installing WP Super Cache can also reduce the number of compute cycles used by a site since it reduces the load on the cluster as well.

WP Super Cache is available at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache and is included by default with the Wordpress One Click Install in the control panel.

Before You Begin

• Have your Rackspace Cloud Control Panel login credentials ready.

Install WP Super Cache

To install WP Super Cache, follow the instructions provided for the plugin located here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/installation/. If you have installed Wordpress via the Wordpress One Click Installer you already have Super Cache installed.

Recommended configuration

In addition to the instructions included with the manual, the following additional changes are recommend and have been tested and shown to increase the efficiency of WP Supercache in Cloud Sites.

Advanced settings

Go to settings for SuperCache and click on the Advanced Tab.

Mark the following items:

• Cache hits to this website for quick access. (Recommended)
• Use mod_rewrite to serve cache files. (Recommended)
• Compress pages so they’re served more quickly to visitors. (Recommended)
• Don’t cache pages for known users. (Recommended)
• Cache rebuild. Serve a supercache file to anonymous users while a new file is being generated. (Recommended)
• Mobile device support. (External plugin or theme required. See the FAQ for further details.)
• Extra homepage checks. (Very occasionally stops homepage caching) (Recommended)

After making those changes, click Update Status.

Mod_rewrite settings

After the screen refreshes scroll down to the Mod Rewrite Rules section and click Update Mod_Rewrite Rules.

Expiry time and garbage collection

Scroll down to Expiry Time & Garbage Collection.

Change cache timeout to 0 seconds then click Change Expiration.

Preload settings

Click on the Preload Tab next.

• Click Preload mode (garbage collection only on legacy cache files. Recommended.)
• Change Refresh preloaded cache files every ___ minutes. (0 to disable, minimum 30 minutes.) to a number appropriate for the traffic your site receives, like 1440 (24 hours) or 10080 (1 week)
• Click Update Settings, then after the page refreshes click Preload Cache Now and in around 10 or 15 seconds the cache will start building for the site. Depending on the size of the site and amount of content, the cache willtake a few seconds to a minute to build. Once complete you will see a much improved response and load time.

Any time a layout change has been made such as adding a widget or changing the theme, it will be necessary to go to the admin panel and click delete cache, verify your page looks as you want, then go into into the Supercache settings, go to the preload tab and click Preload Cache Now to regenerate the cache for the site.

Updating the Supercache plugin

For security purposes and optimizations, it is important to keep the plugin (and Wordpress itself) up-to-date. This can be done through the Wordpress Dashboard.

1. Login to your WordPress Dashboard.
2. Click the Plugins tab on the left-hand column.
3. Check the box next to "Plugin" to select all available plugin updates.
4. Click the Bulk Actions drop down and select "Update"
5. Click Apply
6. The page will change once all of the plugins are updated.