Multisite performance and plugin activation options

  • I have several WP installations, and two of them are multisite using subdomains (site.com/sub1, site.com/sub2) and in general these run fine. Our server is managed in an enterprise data center and runs on Windows servers which are load balanced.

    I have been wondering about the performance affected by the different options for plugins, where, you can activate a plugin network-wide, or not. I’ve moved towards NOT activating network wide, and going into each subdomain and activating only the needed plugins there.

    Is that the best practice?

    I ask because I am having increasing issues when I try and update plugins. Often the update appears to be successful, but then when I reload, the site is broken. If I use SFTP to delete the plugin, and reload, it works again. I am able to add the new version of the plugin just fine. So, I don’t know if the plugin update process doesn’t play nice within our server /w load balancing servers environment, or if it is about how I have the multisite set up, or if it is plugin specific- although it seems to happen with almost every plugin.

    So, I guess there are two questions here:
    1) Can the way plugins are activated in a multi-site impact the plugin update process?
    2) Are there performance gains or losses for network activate or subdomain specific activation?

    THX!

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Moderator bcworkz

    (@bcworkz)

    I would not apply any plugin network wide unless it is a must-use plugin required to be active for all sites. The fewer plugins that need to be parsed for any particular site, the better.

    Did you try updating plugins through the update screen where you can update all plugins at once? That script is not 100% reliable for some reason. Try going to the plugins screen and doing “update now” for each individual plugin. You can start updating another while earlier ones are still working — up to a point. You are limited to how many threads your browser allows at one time.

    Thread Starter tcwaters

    (@tcwaters)

    THX. I have tried updates both ways: update all, as well as the update now. Appreciate the feedback about the “update all” script.

    Our server admin tells me there is an issue with some WP plugins and the way our server is set up with load balancing.

    In my experience the same plugin can sometimes update just fine and at other times, cause an issue. Sometimes the issue is resolved, if I go in and delete the plugin folder via SFTP. And then, add the plugin again as if I’m adding a new plugin. Sometimes, I have to request the server admin to quit and restart a process on the server to resolve the issue.

    The server admin doesn’t seem too interested in sorting out why the plugin update process has conflicts with our server set up and the way things are pushed out to the load balancing machines.

    Regarding not applying any plugin network wide- yes, this makes perfect sense to me. This addresses the performance gain part of my question for sure, but that doesn’t really address the first part of my question. Is there any influence on the plugin update process because of if the plugin is activated network-wide or not? I guess I’m looking for any clues that we can use to try and identify why the server has issues sometimes but not always.

    THX for your feedback!

    Moderator bcworkz

    (@bcworkz)

    Without understanding your server setup, I could be wrong, but I really doubt the network-wide status of any particular plugin would influence the success or failure of the update. Whether network wide or not, you are still updating from the one network admin screen that copies the plugin zip file into one place, regardless of how many sites use the plugin. WP then extracts the file contents into the one appropriate folder. This aspect of WP has no idea, nor cares, how many sites use the plugin.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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