{"id":3623,"date":"2025-11-19T07:10:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T07:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/?p=3623"},"modified":"2025-11-19T07:10:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T07:10:53","slug":"how-to-improve-server-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/how-to-improve-server-speed\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Improve Server Speed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A slow server directly affects your website performance, user experience, SEO ranking, and business revenue. Whether you are running a PHP\/Laravel application, WordPress, or microservices, server slowness often happens due to overloaded databases, excessive logs, heavy sessions, or insufficient resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog, we will understand why servers become slow<\/strong>, how to identify the root cause<\/strong>, and the steps you can take to fix slowness<\/strong>, including cleaning unnecessary database tables like url_clicks<\/code>, sessions<\/code>, and oauth_access_tokens<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

1. Why Does a Server Become Slow?<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There are multiple reasons why a server slows down:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.1 High CPU Usage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Heavy MySQL queries<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Unoptimized tables<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Too many concurrent requests<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Loops or stuck queries<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    1.2 High RAM Usage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Too many active PHP\/Laravel sessions<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Large cache or log files<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Memory leaks in running services<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      1.3 Database Bloating<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      This is one of the most common reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Some tables grow extremely large over time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      • url_clicks<\/code> \u2192 track clicks, gets thousands of rows<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • sessions<\/code> \u2192 old user sessions never cleaned<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • oauth_access_tokens<\/code> \u2192 millions of expired access tokens<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        When these tables become huge, MySQL slows down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        1.4 Disk Issues<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
          \n
        • Full disk<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Too many small files<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Huge log files<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Large session directories<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

          1.5 Poor MySQL Configuration<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

          A default MySQL config cannot handle medium or high traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \n\n\n\n

          2. How to Check Why Your Server Is Slow<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

          Before improving speed, you must identify what is causing the slowness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Run these commands on your Linux server:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          2.1 Check RAM<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
          free -h\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
          2.2 Check CPU Load<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
          top\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
          or<\/p>\n\n\n\n
          htop\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
          2.3 Check Disk Space<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
          df -h\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
          2.4 Check MySQL Heavy Queries<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
          mysql -u root -p -e \"SHOW FULL PROCESSLIST;\"\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
          2.5 Check Which Tables Are Heavy<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
          SELECT table_name AS TableName,\nROUND((data_length + index_length)\/1024\/1024, 2) AS Size_MB\nFROM information_schema.TABLES\nWHERE table_schema = 'your_database'\nORDER BY (data_length + index_length) DESC;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
          These checks clearly show whether the issue is CPU, RAM, Disk, or MySQL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
          \n\n\n\n
          3. Delete Unnecessary Database Records to Improve Speed<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
          Over time, tables like url_clicks<\/code>, sessions<\/code>, and oauth_access_tokens<\/code> become extremely large and slow down the server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
          Cleaning them regularly helps in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
            \n
          • Reducing storage<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Improving SELECT queries<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Improving INSERT performance<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Speeding up backups<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Improving overall MySQL performance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
            Below are the most common fixes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
            \n\n\n\n
            4. Cleaning url_clicks<\/code> Table<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
            This table grows very fast if your website has analytics or click tracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
            Delete old entries (older than 4 months) \u2014 50,000 at a time<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            DELETE FROM url_clicks\nWHERE created_at < NOW() - INTERVAL 4 MONTH\nLIMIT 50000;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            Run multiple times until empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
            \n\n\n\n
            5. Cleaning sessions<\/code> Table<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
            Laravel stores sessions in the database if configured.
            Old sessions are useless and slow down queries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
            Delete sessions older than 2 days<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            DELETE FROM sessions\nWHERE last_activity < UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW() - INTERVAL 2 DAY)\nLIMIT 20000;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            Optimize table<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            OPTIMIZE TABLE sessions;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            \n\n\n\n
            6. Cleaning oauth_access_tokens<\/code> Table<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
            OAuth tokens generated by Laravel Passport accumulate very fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
            Delete tokens older than 2 days<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            DELETE FROM oauth_access_tokens\nWHERE created_at < NOW() - INTERVAL 2 DAY\nLIMIT 50000;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            Optimize table<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            OPTIMIZE TABLE oauth_access_tokens;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            This improves MySQL performance dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
            \n\n\n\n
            7. Additional Steps to Improve Server Speed<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
            7.1 Clear Laravel Cache<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            php artisan optimize:clear\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            7.2 Restart services<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            sudo systemctl restart apache2\nsudo systemctl restart mysql\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            7.3 Enable MySQL Slow Query Log<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            SET GLOBAL slow_query_log = 'ON';\nSET GLOBAL long_query_time = 1;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            7.4 Increase MySQL performance<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            Adjust your my.cnf<\/code>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
            innodb_buffer_pool_size=2G\nquery_cache_type=1\nquery_cache_size=128M\nmax_connections=200\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            7.5 Clean large log files<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            du -sh \/var\/log\/*\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            7.6 Remove unused packages<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            sudo apt autoremove\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            \n\n\n\n
            8. Automate Cleanup (Recommended)<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
            To keep your server fast permanently, create a cron job to clean old records daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
            Example cron:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
            0 3 * * * mysql -u root -pYourPassword -e \"DELETE FROM url_clicks WHERE created_at < NOW() - INTERVAL 4 MONTH LIMIT 50000;\"\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
            You can do similar cron jobs for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
              \n
            • sessions<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • oauth_access_tokens<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
              \n\n\n\n
              <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
              A slow server directly affects your website performance, user experience, SEO ranking, and business revenue. Whether you are running a PHP\/Laravel application, WordPress, or microservices, server slowness… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3623"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3625,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623\/revisions\/3625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopssupport.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}