L2 caching in the Magento application

Caching enables a reduction in network traffic between the remote cache storage and Magento. A standard Magento instance transfers around 300kb per request, and traffic may quickly grow to over ~1000 requests in some situations.

To reduce the network bandwidth to Redis, we can store cache data locally on each web node and use the remote cache for two purposes:

• To check the cache data version, ensuring we have the latest cache stored locally.
• If the data is out of date, transfer the latest cache from the remote machine to the local machine.

Magento stores the hashed data version in Redis, with the suffix ‘:hash’ appended to the regular key. In case of an outdated local cache, the data is transferred to the local machine with a cache adapter.

For Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure, consider the best practices in the Extended Redis cache implementation support article.

Configuration example

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'cache' => [
    'frontend' => [
        'default' => [
          'backend' => '\\Magento\\Framework\\Cache\\Backend\\RemoteSynchronizedCache',
            'backend_options' => [
                'remote_backend' => '\\Magento\\Framework\\Cache\\Backend\\Redis',
                'remote_backend_options' => [
                    'persistent' => 0,
                    'server' => 'localhost',
                    'database' => '0',
                    'port' => '6370',
                    'password' => '',
                    'compress_data' => '1',
                ],
                'local_backend' => 'Cm_Cache_Backend_File',
                'local_backend_options' => [
                    'cache_dir' => '/dev/shm/'
                ]
            ],
            'frontend_options' => [
                'write_control' => false,
            ],
        ]
    ],
    'type' => [
        'default' => ['frontend' => 'default'],
    ],
]

Where:

• backend is the remote L2 cache implementation.
• remote_backend is the remote cache implementation: Redis or MySQL.
• remote_backend_options are Redis or MySQL-specific options.
• local_backend is the local cache implementation: Cm_Cache_Backend_File or the APC adapter.
• cache_dir is a directory where the local cache will be stored. It is suggested to use /dev/shm/.

We recommend the use of Redis for remote caching - \Magento\Framework\Cache\Backend\Redis, and the File cache implementation - Cm_Cache_Backend_File as the local cache. We also recommend the use of the cache preload feature, as it will drastically decrease the pressure on Redis. Do not forget to add suffix ‘:hash’ for preload keys.