Cache Driver Configuration Analyzer

Analyzer ID	Category	Severity	Time To Fix
cache-driver	⚡ Performance	High	60 minutes

What This Checks

Validates that your Laravel application uses an appropriate cache driver for the current environment, ensuring optimal performance in production and proper setup for development.

Why It Matters

• Performance Impact: Cache driver selection can affect application speed by 10-100x
• Scalability: Some drivers only work on single servers, causing issues in load-balanced environments
• Production Critical: Inappropriate cache drivers can create bottlenecks and cascading failures under load

The cache driver determines where Laravel stores cached data. Using file or database drivers in production creates significant performance bottlenecks, while redis or memcached provide 10-100x better performance with proper multi-server support.

How to Fix

Quick Fix (5 minutes)

Scenario: File Driver in Production

# Install Redis (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt-get install redis-server php-redis

# Or via Docker
docker run -d -p 6379:6379 redis:alpine

# Update .env
CACHE_DRIVER=redis
REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_PASSWORD=null
REDIS_PORT=6379

Proper Fix (60 minutes)

Implement production-grade caching with Redis or Memcached:

Option A: Redis Setup (Recommended)

# 1. Install Redis server
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install redis-server

# macOS
brew install redis
brew services start redis

# Verify Redis is running
redis-cli ping  # Should return "PONG"

# 2. Install PHP Redis extension
sudo apt-get install php8.1-redis

# Or via PECL
pecl install redis

# 3. Install Laravel Redis package
composer require predis/predis
# Or use phpredis extension (faster)

# .env configuration
CACHE_DRIVER=redis
REDIS_CLIENT=phpredis  # or 'predis'
REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_PASSWORD=null
REDIS_PORT=6379
REDIS_DB=0

// config/cache.php - Verify Redis store configuration
'stores' => [
    'redis' => [
        'driver' => 'redis',
        'connection' => 'cache',  // Uses connection from config/database.php
        'lock_connection' => 'default',
    ],
],

// config/database.php - Redis connection
'redis' => [
    'client' => env('REDIS_CLIENT', 'phpredis'),

    'cache' => [
        'url' => env('REDIS_URL'),
        'host' => env('REDIS_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
        'password' => env('REDIS_PASSWORD'),
        'port' => env('REDIS_PORT', 6379),
        'database' => env('REDIS_CACHE_DB', 1),
    ],
],

Option B: Memcached Setup

# 1. Install Memcached server
sudo apt-get install memcached php8.1-memcached

# Start Memcached
sudo systemctl start memcached
sudo systemctl enable memcached

# 2. Verify it's running
echo "stats" | nc localhost 11211

# .env configuration
CACHE_DRIVER=memcached
MEMCACHED_HOST=127.0.0.1
MEMCACHED_PORT=11211

// config/cache.php
'stores' => [
    'memcached' => [
        'driver' => 'memcached',
        'persistent_id' => env('MEMCACHED_PERSISTENT_ID'),
        'sasl' => [
            env('MEMCACHED_USERNAME'),
            env('MEMCACHED_PASSWORD'),
        ],
        'options' => [
            // Memcached::OPT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT => 2000,
        ],
        'servers' => [
            [
                'host' => env('MEMCACHED_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
                'port' => env('MEMCACHED_PORT', 11211),
                'weight' => 100,
            ],
        ],
    ],
],

Option C: DynamoDB (for Laravel Vapor/AWS)

composer require aws/aws-sdk-php

CACHE_DRIVER=dynamodb
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-key
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1
DYNAMODB_CACHE_TABLE=laravel_cache

Docker Compose Setup:

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'
services:
  app:
    build: .
    environment:
      CACHE_DRIVER: redis
      REDIS_HOST: redis
    depends_on:
      - redis

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    ports:
      - "6379:6379"
    volumes:
      - redis_data:/data
    command: redis-server --appendonly yes --requirepass ${REDIS_PASSWORD}

volumes:
  redis_data:

Performance Optimization (Unix Sockets):

For even better performance on single servers, use Unix sockets instead of TCP:

// config/database.php
'redis' => [
    'cache' => [
        'scheme' => 'unix',
        'path' => '/var/run/redis/redis.sock',
        'database' => 1,
    ],
],

# Configure Redis to use socket
# /etc/redis/redis.conf
unixsocket /var/run/redis/redis.sock
unixsocketperm 770

# Add web server user to redis group
sudo usermod -a -G redis www-data

# Restart Redis
sudo systemctl restart redis

Monitoring Cache Performance:

# Monitor Redis stats
redis-cli info stats

# Monitor cache hit rate
php artisan tinker
>>> cache()->store('redis')->getRedis()->info('stats')

References

• Laravel Cache Documentation
• Redis Quick Start
• Memcached Documentation
• Laravel Performance Best Practices

Related Analyzers

• Configuration Caching Analyzer - Ensures config is cached in production
• Session Driver Configuration Analyzer - Validates session driver for scalability
• Queue Driver Configuration Analyzer - Ensures a proper queue driver configuration for optimal performance and reliability
• Shared Cache Lock Store Analyzer - Detects cache lock usage on the default cache store