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My varnish cache will only keep items cached for a few minutes. I have changed varnish configurations to keep items cached for a week.

Here is my default.vcl:

# VCL version 5.0 is not supported so it should be 4.0 even though actually used Varnish version is 6
vcl 4.0;

import std;
# The minimal Varnish version is 6.0
# For SSL offloading, pass the following header in your proxy server or load balancer: 'SSL-OFFLOADED: https'

backend default {
    .host = "172.26.12.6";
    .port = "8080";
    .first_byte_timeout = 600s;
    .probe = {
        .url = "/health_check.php";
        .timeout = 2s;
        .interval = 5s;
        .window = 10;
        .threshold = 5;
   }
}

acl purge {
    "172.26.12.6";
}

sub vcl_recv {

    if (req.restarts > 0) {
       set req.hash_always_miss = true;
    }

    if (req.method == "PURGE") {
        if (client.ip !~ purge) {
            return (synth(405, "Method not allowed"));
        }
        # To use the X-Pool header for purging varnish during automated deployments, make sure the X-Pool header
        # has been added to the response in your backend server config. This is used, for example, by the
        # capistrano-magento2 gem for purging old content from varnish during it's deploy routine.
        if (!req.http.X-Magento-Tags-Pattern && !req.http.X-Pool) {
            return (synth(400, "X-Magento-Tags-Pattern or X-Pool header required"));
        }
        if (req.http.X-Magento-Tags-Pattern) {
          ban("obj.http.X-Magento-Tags ~ " + req.http.X-Magento-Tags-Pattern);
        }
        if (req.http.X-Pool) {
          ban("obj.http.X-Pool ~ " + req.http.X-Pool);
        }
        return (synth(200, "Purged"));
    }

    if (req.method != "GET" &&
        req.method != "HEAD" &&
        req.method != "PUT" &&
        req.method != "POST" &&
        req.method != "TRACE" &&
        req.method != "OPTIONS" &&
        req.method != "DELETE") {
          /* Non-RFC2616 or CONNECT which is weird. */
          return (pipe);
    }

    # We only deal with GET and HEAD by default
    if (req.method != "GET" && req.method != "HEAD") {
        return (pass);
    }

    # Bypass shopping cart, checkout and search requests
    if (req.url ~ "/checkout" || req.url ~ "/catalogsearch") {
        return (pass);
    }

    # Bypass health check requests
    if (req.url ~ "/pub/health_check.php") {
        return (pass);
    }

    # Set initial grace period usage status
    set req.http.grace = "none";

    # normalize url in case of leading HTTP scheme and domain
    set req.url = regsub(req.url, "^http[s]?://", "");

    # collect all cookies
    std.collect(req.http.Cookie);

    # Compression filter. See https://www.varnish-cache.org/trac/wiki/FAQ/Compression
    if (req.http.Accept-Encoding) {
        if (req.url ~ ".(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|gz|tgz|bz2|tbz|mp3|ogg|swf|flv)$") {
            # No point in compressing these
            unset req.http.Accept-Encoding;
        } elsif (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "gzip") {
            set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "gzip";
        } elsif (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "deflate" && req.http.user-agent !~ "MSIE") {
            set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "deflate";
        } else {
            # unknown algorithm
            unset req.http.Accept-Encoding;
        }
    }

    # Remove all marketing get parameters to minimize the cache objects
    if (req.url ~ "(?|&)(gclid|cx|ie|cof|siteurl|zanpid|origin|fbclid|mc_[a-z]+|utm_[a-z]+|_bta_[a-z]+)=") {
        set req.url = regsuball(req.url, "(gclid|cx|ie|cof|siteurl|zanpid|origin|fbclid|mc_[a-z]+|utm_[a-z]+|_bta_[a-z]+)=[-_A-z0-9+()%.]+&?", "");
        set req.url = regsub(req.url, "[?|&]+$", "");
    }

    # Static files caching
    if (req.url ~ "^/(pub/)?(media|static)/") {
        # Static files should not be cached by default
        return (pass);

        # But if you use a few locales and don't use CDN you can enable caching static files by commenting previous line (#return (pass);) and uncommenting next 3 lines
        #unset req.http.Https;
        #unset req.http.SSL-OFFLOADED;
        #unset req.http.Cookie;
    }

    return (hash);
}

sub vcl_hash {
    if (req.http.cookie ~ "X-Magento-Vary=") {
        hash_data(regsub(req.http.cookie, "^.*?X-Magento-Vary=([^;]+);*.*$", "1"));
    }

    # For multi site configurations to not cache each other's content
    if (req.http.host) {
        hash_data(req.http.host);
    } else {
        hash_data(server.ip);
    }

    # To make sure http users don't see ssl warning
    if (req.http.SSL-OFFLOADED) {
        hash_data(req.http.SSL-OFFLOADED);
    }
    

    if (req.url ~ "/graphql") {
        call process_graphql_headers;
    }
}

sub process_graphql_headers {
    if (req.http.Store) {
        hash_data(req.http.Store);
    }
    if (req.http.Content-Currency) {
        hash_data(req.http.Content-Currency);
    }
}

sub vcl_backend_response {

    set beresp.grace = 3d;

    if (beresp.http.content-type ~ "text") {
        set beresp.do_esi = true;
    }

    if (bereq.url ~ ".js$" || beresp.http.content-type ~ "text") {
        set beresp.do_gzip = true;
    }

    if (beresp.http.X-Magento-Debug) {
        set beresp.http.X-Magento-Cache-Control = beresp.http.Cache-Control;
    }

    # cache only successfully responses and 404s
    if (beresp.status != 200 && beresp.status != 404) {
        set beresp.ttl = 0s;
        set beresp.uncacheable = true;
        return (deliver);
    } elsif (beresp.http.Cache-Control ~ "private") {
        set beresp.uncacheable = true;
        set beresp.ttl = 604800s;
        return (deliver);
    }

    # validate if we need to cache it and prevent from setting cookie
    if (beresp.ttl > 0s && (bereq.method == "GET" || bereq.method == "HEAD")) {
        unset beresp.http.set-cookie;
    }

   # If page is not cacheable then bypass varnish for 2 minutes as Hit-For-Pass
   if (beresp.ttl <= 0s ||
       beresp.http.Surrogate-control ~ "no-store" ||
       (!beresp.http.Surrogate-Control &&
       beresp.http.Cache-Control ~ "no-cache|no-store") ||
       beresp.http.Vary == "*") {
        # Mark as Hit-For-Pass for the next 2 minutes
        set beresp.ttl = 604800s;
        set beresp.uncacheable = true;
    }

    return (deliver);
}

sub vcl_deliver {
    if (resp.http.X-Magento-Debug) {
        if (resp.http.x-varnish ~ " ") {
            set resp.http.X-Magento-Cache-Debug = "HIT";
            set resp.http.Grace = req.http.grace;
        } else {
            set resp.http.X-Magento-Cache-Debug = "MISS";
        }
    } else {
        unset resp.http.Age;
    }

    # Not letting browser to cache non-static files.
    if (resp.http.Cache-Control !~ "private" && req.url !~ "^/(pub/)?(media|static)/") {
        set resp.http.Pragma = "no-cache";
        set resp.http.Expires = "-1";
        set resp.http.Cache-Control = "no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, max-age=0";
    }

    unset resp.http.X-Magento-Debug;
    unset resp.http.X-Magento-Tags;
    unset resp.http.X-Powered-By;
    unset resp.http.Server;
    unset resp.http.X-Varnish;
    unset resp.http.Via;
    unset resp.http.Link;
}

sub vcl_hit {
    if (obj.ttl >= 0s) {
        # Hit within TTL period
        return (deliver);
    }
    if (std.healthy(req.backend_hint)) {
        if (obj.ttl + 300s > 0s) {
            # Hit after TTL expiration, but within grace period
            set req.http.grace = "normal (healthy server)";
            return (deliver);
        } else {
            # Hit after TTL and grace expiration
            return (restart);
        }
    } else {
        # server is not healthy, retrieve from cache
        set req.http.grace = "unlimited (unhealthy server)";
        return (deliver);
    }
}

And here is my systemctl edit --full varnish.service

[Unit]
Description=Varnish HTTP accelerator
Documentation=https://www.varnish-cache.org/docs/6.1/ man:varnishd

[Service]
Type=simple
LimitNOFILE=131072
LimitMEMLOCK=82000
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/varnishd -j unix,user=vcache -F -a :6081 -T localhost:6082 -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl -S /etc/varnish/secret -s malloc,3072m -p default_ttl=604800
ExecReload=/usr/share/varnish/varnishreload
ProtectSystem=full
ProtectHome=true
PrivateTmp=true
PrivateDevices=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

3 GB are allocated for the cache, and at any given time, only about 30 megabytes are being used. I’m not sure why it won’t keep the cache and I’m fairly new to varnish so I don’t know where to look to figure out what is happening.

Update:

For additional reference, when I say varnish only keeps the cache for a few minutes, what I mean is it keeps it for somewhere between 5-10 minutes, I’m not sure of the exact amount of time.

Update 2:

I had originally used the default.vcl that comes from Magento, only changing the "/pub/health_check.php" url to "/health_check.php". The issue of the cache only being valid for a few minutes still occurred then.

2

Answers


  1. As a rule of thumb, don’t tinker with Magento-generated VCL unless you know what you are doing, like fixing an actual bug they refuse to fix (there are quite a few, to admit).

    So as for what you did so far…

    The following fragment is about hit-for-pass:

       if (beresp.ttl <= 0s ||
           beresp.http.Surrogate-control ~ "no-store" ||
           (!beresp.http.Surrogate-Control &&
           beresp.http.Cache-Control ~ "no-cache|no-store") ||
           beresp.http.Vary == "*") {
            # Mark as Hit-For-Pass for the next 2 minutes
            set beresp.ttl = 604800s;
            set beresp.uncacheable = true;
        }
    

    This is an optimization called "hit-for-pass". It is meant for a case when Varnish expected the page to be cacheable but receives an uncacheable response. When this happens, this VCL marks it as "uncacheable" for some time, and next time a request comes for the same page during that time, it will go directly to the backend. Normally, Varnish waits for other requests to the same page, a feature called "requests coalescing", and it’s a good thing. But in the case of "the page is suddenly uncacheable", it’s a bad thing and requests coalescing must be disabled by marking the page as uncacheable. "Hit-for-pass" disables requests coalescing for cached pages, saves backend load, and optimizes communication between Varnish and backend.

    1 week is overkill and may cause cacheability issues. Reverting 604800s to the original value 120s is recommended.

    In varnish.service, the -p default_ttl=604800 is really the default TTL. That is for responses that do not specify cache lifetime via headers. Magento 2 does specify, so the default value won’t be used.

    Things are pretty simple if you follow the documentation:

    1. Log in to the Magento Admin as an administrator.
    2. Click Stores > Settings > Configuration > Advanced > System > Full Page Cache.
    3. From the Caching Application list, click Varnish Caching.
    4. Enter a value in the TTL for public content field.
    5. Expand Varnish Configuration and enter the following information..

    Point 4 about TTL is exactly where you set the value for Varnish cache lifetime.
    I’d actually recommend setting it to even longer, like 2 weeks or more. Magento will do the job of purging cache items that need clearing.

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  2. Your cache is probably removed after an order is placed.

    See: https://github.com/magento/magento2/issues/30128

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