Fix WordPress High I/O Usage
We’ll look at a fix for WordPress’ high I/O use in this article.
Simply expressed, the “throughput” or data transmission speed between the hard disc and the RAM is known as I/O (input/output computed in KB/s). An I/O disc, which would be the hard disc drive or HDD on a shared web hosting site, specifies any procedure involving writing to or reading from a storage device on a website. When compared to solid-state memory, such as RAM, HDD I / O operations are incredibly slow—on average, 2,000 times slower.
What causes I/O to be used so frequently?
Higher data output and input, or you could say faster read and write speeds in the disc, are what primarily cause I/O. If you are the owner of a VPS or dedicated server, creating a ZIP file out of the 20 files will take a long time and require a lot more I/O because each file is 10 GB in size.
1. Malware
Make sure to wipe up any malware that has affected your WordPress site because hackers may try to make it load more slowly. Your theme folder and plugins can both be backed up individually, and you can check them both on the Virus Complete website. If you conduct a search, you will learn which plugin is the root of the problem so that it can be fixed one at a time; otherwise, we advise against using that plugin or theme. DoS assaults, spam attacks, and poorly written PHP programmes frequently utilise a lot of memory, which explains why your control panel experiences excessive I/O usage.
2. Plugins for backups
Some backup plugins create the backup for you, but who knows that you are also reading and writing data to and from your hard drive or HDD in the interim. Your backup plugin will take too long to render the backup and your I/O use will be too high, therefore you will notice I/O once it is finished if the total amount of data on your website is too large.
3. Crawler
Your website will show high I/O usage if your I/O usage cap is 400 KBPS and you receive more than 400 visitors or if a crawler accesses your pages at that speed. In this case, either your website will serve the pages or your website will write the data, both of which will be counted toward your I/O usage. Web spiders that crawl websites too aggressively run the risk of using more I/O from your Cpanel account, which slows down your website.
4. PHP Script
In today’s shared hosting environment, Apache web servers are typically running on Linux servers. SuPhp, which is developed in a number of languages, including Perl, Python, and the most popular one, PHP, is the most common of those supporting CGI and FastCGI scripts. A single site might hypothetically devour all CPU, IO, memory, or Apache processes, which would bring the server to a full halt.
5. wp-cron.php File
The file wp-cron.php, which is necessary for running your automatic job, may be found in your file manager; make sure it is clean. Since the job for the plugin is scheduled to run, there is a risk that it would run the quick PHP file, which would increase memory and I/O use. Therefore, to control and keep an eye on cron tasks, you can utilise the WP Control plugin. It is recommended to set the file permission to 0000 to prevent access to the cron file if your WordPress installation does not use any automated tasks.
Follow these methods to resolve the high I/O usages.
There are a number of strategies to reduce high I/O usage and speed up your website, so I’ll get right to the solution by outlining the specific measures you can take to resolve the high I/O usage problem for your WordPress website.
1. Install caching plugin
Since PHP is the programming language used by our WordPress website, caching the files and converting them to HTML files before serving them to users will lower the website’s load, hence reducing the load. You can utilise a number of WordPress plugins, including the free W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, Comet Cache, WP Fastest Cache, and WP Rocket.
2. Use a CDN
I will advise you to utilise a CDN like CloudFlare as one of your best options to block these crawlers or bots since sometimes large crawlers and BOT want your website to be down so they boost the crawl rate and continuously surf your website’s pages.
3. Use trusted WordPress plugins and WordPress themes
Never forget that if you don’t pay for anything that needs to be paid for, you’ll end up paying more. In other words, if you have purchased a premium plugin or theme from someone who has cracked it or nulled it, keep in mind that person also expects something from you, namely, harm to your website or some other type of website issue. Nothing in this world is free, therefore make sure to check any bought plugins or themes on the Virus Total website to ensure they are clean before using them.
4. Use less plugin
Using too many plugins causes your website to be overloaded because each visitor will need a plugin to complete an action, which places a burden on your server as well. Therefore, it is best to utilise the necessary plugins alone and eliminate the rest. You should also avoid using any automatic plugins, such as social poster or auto-schedule articles plugins. Utilize the Query Monitor plugin to identify the plugins that are putting a heavy demand on your website and reduce load times by examining the plugin’s output.
We learned how to resolve WordPress’ high I/O use in this article.
