My server's CPU usage has been quite high lately and I asked my dedicated server host what could be done to help. Here's what they suggested:
In an attempt to reduce CPU usage, I would suggest tuning Apache with respect to the MPM used (i.e. Apache's configuration should be configured via an includes file when using "event" or "worker" MPMs) and switching from the "worker" MPM to "event". Additionally, I would highly suggest enabling "KeepAlive" for Apache as that can help reduce CPU usage.
I know this doesn't answer your question specifically but as a suggestion you may want to look at your logs and bot activity and consider blocking some overly aggressive or unfamiliar bots in your robots.txt and .htaccess. If a bunch of indexing bots are constantly hitting your server, it could be part of what is driving up your usage.
You don't have to ditch Apache to move to php-fpm and cPanel makes that dead simple. Make sure you're running CSF and blocking countries that have no business being there. The other thing that helped on one forum I manage was installing and enabling a bare bones Redis cache using the options from the XF2 manual:
Redis has a number of additional configuration options. The following list will demonstrate the default values of all of the supported configuration items available:
I know this doesn't answer your question specifically but as a suggestion you may want to look at your logs and bot activity and consider blocking some overly aggressive or unfamiliar bots in your robots.txt and .htaccess. If a bunch of indexing bots are constantly hitting your server, it could be part of what is driving up your usage.
You don't have to ditch Apache to move to php-fpm and cPanel makes that dead simple. Make sure you're running CSF and blocking countries that have no business being there. The other thing that helped on one forum I manage was installing and enabling a bare bones Redis cache using the options from the XF2 manual:
