X-Ray: tracking down slow pages

Is your website slow, or does it keep hitting its limits? Then you'll want to know why: a plugin, a slow database query, or an external service that takes a long time to respond. X-Ray measures this for you. It tracks every request to your website for a while and shows, per page, what took the most time.

Starting a measurement

1. In DirectAdmin, under Extra Features, click X-Ray. You'll see the list of measurements (tasks). If it says NO TASKS FOUND, you don't have any yet.
2. Click Start tracing (1).
3. Under URL (1), choose your domain and enter the part of your site you want to measure under Specify mask. Use /* to measure the whole site, or for example /shop/* for only the pages under /shop.
4. Under Record for, you'll see how many requests will be measured (20 by default). Tick Advanced settings for more options.
5. Click Run (2).

Collecting data

Now open your website in a private browser window and click around, especially on the pages that are slow. Or wait for regular visitors to come by. X-Ray captures requests until the set number has been reached. The list shows how many have already been measured.

Reading the report

1. In the list, click the eye icon (view) next to your measurement.
2. You'll see all the measured requests with their load times. Click the request that took the longest: that's where you'll find the most useful information.
3. The report shows which parts took the most time: per plugin or module, the slowest database queries, and requests to external services.

Does one plugin stand out with a much longer time than the rest? Then that's probably the culprit. Update it, look for a lighter alternative, or disable it. Do you instead see lots of plugins each taking a bit of time? Then you simply have too many. Known heavy combinations include, for example, an extensive page builder together with a webshop and lots of extras.

What almost always helps?

• Use the LiteSpeed Cache plugin. Our servers run LiteSpeed, and with this plugin, pages are served ready-made from the cache.
• Only use plugins you really need.
• Choose a newer PHP version (see Selecting the PHP version (Select PHP version)) and turn on opcache (see Enabling and disabling PHP extensions).
• If your website no longer fits your package, choose a larger package in My WebOké.

Please note: During a measurement, every measured request is a little slower. Stop a measurement once you're done, and don't leave one running unnecessarily.