High Server Response Time on Droplet-Hosted Website

Hi Ben,

It sounds like you’ve already done some great troubleshooting so far!

Regarding the networking issue, this is highly unlikely, but a quick way to test this is to run an mtr from your laptop to the Droplet’s IP address and see if there is any packet loss along the way.

It is usually normal to see some performance degradation as your website grows and your traffic increases but your server resources stay the same. It is a good practice to:

• Delete any plugins that you do not really need
• Delete all themes that are not active, even if they are deactivated they could still cause some performance issues and expose security vulnerabilities
• If you have a security plugin like WordFence for example, it is great for scanning your website, but having it constantly on your site could have a large performance impact as each request is essentially scanned
• You could use a caching plugin like WP super cache or W3 total cache for example

On the server resource utilization side, you can use top or htop to get some more details on the CPU and RAM utilization in real-time. This will also give you a list of the processes that are consuming most of the resources which would point you in the direction what might the bottleneck be.

On the MySQL side, you could also follow the steps here on how to tweak your MySQL service for better performance and stability based on the resources that you have available on your server:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/how-to-tweak-mysql-mariadb-configuration-for-increased-performance-and-stability

You could definitely try adding more resources like RAM and CPU to your Droplet and see if this helps. If you were to only upgrade your RAM and CPU without upgrading your Disk, then you will be able to downgrade your Droplet later on if you think that the extra resources did not help.

On the PHP memory limit, you need to be careful here as if you were to give PHP too much memory it could easily exhaust the available RAM on the server, especially on a server with only 2GB of RAM.

Let me know how it goes!

- Bobby

To address the increased server response times and provide specific guidance, we need a bit more information. Here’s how you can proceed to help identify the root cause:

1. Server Logs: Check your Nginx, PHP-FPM, and MySQL logs for any errors or unusual patterns. These logs can provide valuable clues about potential bottlenecks or misconfigurations.

2. Database Performance: Monitor your MySQL performance using tools like mysqltuner or phpMyAdmin to identify slow queries or suboptimal settings.

3. Network Performance: Test the network latency to your droplet from various locations using tools like ping or mtr. This can help identify whether the issue might be related to DigitalOcean’s data center or your specific server.

4. Page Load Analysis: Use browser developer tools or tools like GTmetrix to pinpoint which part of the page load process is slowing down. For example, is the delay happening before the server responds (TTFB) or during resource loading?

5. Resource Usage Monitoring: While you mentioned CPU and RAM usage seem normal, tools like htop or netdata can provide deeper insights into I/O, disk usage, or any unexpected background processes consuming resources.

6. WordPress Debugging: Enable WordPress debugging to log any errors or warnings that might indicate plugin conflicts, theme issues, or other CMS-related problems.

Recommendations to Consider:

• Caching: Ensure that a full-page caching solution is in place, such as a plugin like WP Super Cache or a reverse proxy like Nginx FastCGI Cache.
• Database Optimization: Periodic maintenance like optimizing tables and checking for unused data is great, but ensure indexes are properly configured for your queries.
• Content Delivery Network (CDN): If not already in use, a CDN like Cloudflare can offload some traffic, especially for static files.
• Server Upgrades: While your current droplet should handle 5,000 daily visitors, if usage spikes or your website’s complexity has increased, an upgrade might be warranted.
• Review Server Configuration: Fine-tune Nginx and PHP-FPM settings based on your traffic and workload patterns.