Add a memcached to improve performance

[kestasjk]

Are there any objections to webDiplomacy requiring memcached? It might create issues for small / old shared hosts, but on the official server it's hard to scale up the locking system as-is to handle live games and API polling directly from the database will row-level locking. Moving to a node.js type solution will help a lot, but that won't be for a while.

[ngzax]

hey @kestasjk : i think this is a fine idea. my problem is that i am trying to bring my local server up-to-date with the latest code containing this but i don't see any instructions on how to configure it. i have installed memcached on my server and integrated it into PHP, but webdip doesn't load.

Can you please point me to any instructions on how to make this work? Thanks.

[kestasjk]

Hi ngzax; what error are you getting? This is what I recently sent to another team to get them up and running on the latest code:

Set up firewall:
    1  ufw status
    2  ufw status --numbered
    3  ufw status numbered
    4  ufw allow from any to any ssh
    5  ufw allow from any to any port ssh
    6  ufw enable
    7  ufw allow from any to any port http
    8  ufw allow from any to any port https
    
Install basics:
    9  apt install apache2
   10  apt install mariadb-server
   11  apt install memcached
   12  apt install php7.4
   
Check what is missing:
   13  apt list --installed | grep php7
   14  apt install php7.4-gd php7.4-curl php7.4-memcached php7.4-mysql
   15  apt list --installed | grep php7
   
Get the latest code:
   16  git
   17  apt install git
   18  cd /var/www/html/
   19  ls
   20  git clone https://github.com/kestasjk/webDiplomacy.git
   21  ;s
   22  ls
   23  git help clone
   24  rm -rf webDiplomacy/
   25  git clone https://github.com/kestasjk/webDiplomacy.git .
   26  rm index.html 
   27  git clone https://github.com/kestasjk/webDiplomacy.git .
   28  ls
Set up the config.php file with some random salt values and the database configuration, and set Config::$mailerConfig['UseDebug'] = true (unless a mail server is available, not that this is unsecure as e-mail contents are shown to the user instead of being sent via e-mail):
   29  cp config.sample.php config.php
Check everything is running; apache, mariadb, memcached
   30  service --status-all
Run CREATE DATABASE webdiplomacy;
   31  mysql
   
Run full database install script (or load up a backup):
   32  cat install/FullInstall/fullInstall.sql 
   33  cat install/FullInstall/fullInstall.sql > mysql webdiplomacy;
   34  cat install/FullInstall/fullInstall.sql | mysql webdiplomacy;
   35  ls install/
   36  nano -w config.php 
   37  ls -la
Change owner from root to www:
   38  chown -R www-data .
   39  chgrp -R www-data .
Change the default PHP config to output errors to help with troubleshooting:
   40  nano -w /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini 
   41  cat /var/log/apache2/error.log 
Getting the Memcached clas not found error, create a <?php phpinfo(); ?> test.php to diagnose:
   42  nano -w test.php
   
Apache restart after PHP module install:
   43  service apache2 restart
Getting error can't connect to database, login failed. Set root password:
   44  mysql
Add root password to config:
   45  nano -w config.php 
Trying to remove deprecated error re: PHPMailer by turning off deprecation errors:
   46  nano -w /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini 
Create a user by registering on this site. The e-mail confirmation link will be output instead of e-mailed,
follow the link to get to the new user form:
Once a newly created user 'kestasjk' is created set the user to admin:
   47  echo "DESCRIBE wD_Users" | mysql webdiplomacy
   48  echo "DESCRIBE wD_Users" | mysql webdiplomacy -u root -p
   49  echo "UPDATE wD_Users SET type='User,Moderator,Admin' WHERE username=kestasjk';" | mysql webdiplomacy -u root -p
   50  echo "UPDATE wD_Users SET type='User,Moderator,Admin' WHERE username='kestasjk';" | mysql webdiplomacy -u root -p
After refreshing the Mod CP will be available; turn on maintenance mode to prevent other users getting in, and to enable the DATC test cases:
   51  # turn on maintenance mode via admin CP, then go to datc.php and batch through the DATC tests to check that game processing and map generation is working
Go to /datc.php and click Batch all to start running through all the test cases. Leave the browser to complete.
Meanwhile set up SSL:
   52  apt install certbot
Set a real hostname:
   53  nano -w /etc/hostname 
No changes needed here:
   54  nano -w /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf 
Run auto-config:
   55  certbot
No luck a dependency is missing, it says it can't configure this server:
   56  cat /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
   57  apt-get install python-certbot-apache
   58  apt-get install python3-certbot-apache
Now the SSL cert installs:
   59  certbot
Check HTTPS is open:
   60  ufw status numbered
   61  history
   
New webdiplomacy installation set up and ready to go!

Let me know if that works and I'll add this as the new installation guide

[ngzax]

so my issue is indeed that it can't find the Memached class:

[Fri Jan 07 15:14:00.855495 2022] [php7:error] [pid 40003] [client 173.245.52.206:18884] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Class 'Memcached' not found in /usr/home/aries/webDiplomacy/objects/memcached.php:6
Stack trace:\n#0 /usr/home/aries/webDiplomacy/objects/memcached.php(12): newMC()
#1 /usr/home/aries/webDiplomacy/header.php(59): require_once('/usr/home/aries...')
#2 /usr/home/aries/webDiplomacy/index.php(24): require_once('/usr/home/aries...')
#3 {main}\n  thrown in /usr/home/aries/webDiplomacy/objects/memcached.php on line 6, referer: https://urbit.ngzax.com/dip/

but my PHP reports that it has it:

Any ideas?

[ngzax]

So I have solved this. It turns out the PHP has both a "Memcache" library (the one that I had initially installed and is shown above) and a "Memcached" library that is what I really needed. Installing the right one fixes the issue.

Thanks for your help! I really appreciate all the hard work you have put into this. It is a great diplomacy server.

[ngzax]

@kestasjk : thanks for this very detailed reply. i'll see what i have missed and let you know shortly.

[alexintour]

Is there any way to completely disable this option?
I have a shared hosting without memcached and don't know if they will install it on their servers only for me.

[alexintour]

ok, it seems I just commented out the file objects/memcached.php and it works without it.

perhaps in the config.php there could be an option true/false for memcached option.