CubeCart can cache in several ways, and the setting is easy to get wrong in a way that only shows up later.
What is available here
- File – stores cache files on disk. Works everywhere, needs nothing enabled, but creates a great many small files.
- Memcached – stores the cache in memory. Faster and creates no files. Available on our servers.
- Redis – not available on our shared servers. Do not select it.
The failure to know about
If you select a driver whose PHP extension is not enabled for your account, the store does not fall back gracefully – it fails, and you get a white page or a fatal error naming a missing class. Because the setting is stored in the database, the admin may be inaccessible too, which makes it awkward to undo.
We have seen exactly this after a PHP version change: the store was set to memcached, the account moved to a new PHP version whose extension list did not include memcached, and the shop went down. The setting was fine; the extension was missing.
So before selecting a driver
Confirm the extension is enabled for the PHP version your account is actually running – in cPanel, Select PHP Version, then the extensions list. Remember that extensions do not carry over when you change version. See Choosing a PHP version.
The inode angle
File caching on a large catalogue can produce tens of thousands of files. If you are near your inode limit, memcached avoids that entirely.
If in doubt
Ask us which drivers are available for your account before changing it. It takes a moment and avoids taking the shop down.
