Data encoding

  1. Requirements
  2. Changing serializer/compression
  3. Choosing a compression algorithm
  4. Installation
  5. igbinary serializer
  6. lzf/lz4/zstd compression

Using Object Cache Pro’s serializer and compression configuration options reduces Redis memory usage by 70-80% and greatly reduces network communication.

While that’s fantastic, setting up, enabling and changing serialization and compression requires some extra steps.

Requirements

To use the igbinary serializer, the PHP installation must have the igbinary PHP extension installed and the PhpRedis extension must be compiled with the --enable-redis-igbinary flag.

To use any of the compression algorithm requires PhpRedis to be compiled with their correlated flags, such as --enable-redis-zstd and --enable-redis-lz4.

Learn more about compiling PhpRedis.

Changing serializer/compression

Every time the serializer or compression configuration option is changed, you must flush your entire Redis database to avoid corrupt data and crashing your site.

If you can afford downtime in your development or staging environment, just go ahead and change serializer / compression option and run redis-cli flushdb.

In production environments that cannot afford downtime it’s recommended to:

  1. Disable the object cache: wp redis disable
  2. Run wp redis cli and then flushdb
  3. Change serializer / compression option
  4. Re-enable the object cache: wp redis enable

Choosing a compression algorithm

The zstd algorithm compresses data the smallest, lz4 compresses data the fastest and lzf should only be used when the others aren’t available.

Installation

igbinary serializer

The easiest way to install igbinary and enable PhpRedis support for it is using pecl if it is available on the system:

pecl install igbinary
pecl install --configureoptions='enable-redis-igbinary="yes"' redis

If PECL isn’t available, igbinary can be compiled from source.

lzf/lz4/zstd compression

The easiest way to install any of the compression algorithms is using pecl.

# Use prompts
pecl install redis

# Skip prompts
pecl install --configureoptions='enable-redis-lzf="yes" enable-redis-zstd="yes" enable-redis-lz4="yes"' redis

If PECL isn’t available, PhpRedis can be compiled from source.