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System Status

System Status provides real-time insights into your site's performance, cache effectiveness, and system health.

Dashboard Overview​

The System Status page displays comprehensive metrics including:

Cache Metrics​

  • Cache enabled status — whether page caching is active
  • Total cached pages — count of cached files on disk
  • Cache size — disk space used by cache
  • Cache hit rate — percentage of requests served from cache
  • Last cache purge — UTC timestamp of last purge event
  • Time since last purge — how long current cache has been active

Performance Metrics​

  • Average page load time — mean response time for cached pages
  • Database query time — time spent on database operations
  • Average PHP execution time — PHP processing overhead
  • Server response time (TTFB) — time to first byte

Optimization Status​

  • Active optimizations — which features are enabled
    • Page caching: ✅/❌
    • Minification: ✅/❌
    • Defer scripts: ✅/❌
    • Lazy load images: ✅/❌
    • CDN integration: ✅/❌
  • Pending recommendations — actions you should consider

System Information​

  • PHP version — current PHP version
  • MySQL/MariaDB version — database version
  • WordPress version — core version
  • Performance Toolkit version — plugin version
  • Disk space available — free space on hosting
  • Memory usage — current memory consumed
  • Uptime — server uptime

Interpreting Cache Hit Rate​

What is Cache Hit Rate?​

Percentage of requests served from cache vs. origin server.

Hit Rate = Cached Requests / Total Requests × 100

Examples​

  • 95% hit rate — 95 of 100 requests served from cache (excellent)
  • 70% hit rate — 70 of 100 requests served from cache (good)
  • 40% hit rate — 40 of 100 requests served from cache (improving)
  • 5% hit rate — 5 of 100 requests served from cache (cache not effective)

Target Hit Rates by Site Type​

Site TypeTarget
Blog/Content80-95%
E-commerce60-80%
Community/Forum40-70%
Highly dynamic30-50%

Improving Cache Hit Rate​

If hit rate is low:

  1. Too many excluded URLs

    • Check Performance Toolkit → Cache
    • Review "Cache Excluded URLs"
    • Remove unnecessary exclusions
    • Test impact on performance

  2. Cache TTL too short

    • Pages expire and miss immediately
    • Increase TTL if content allows
    • Set based on update frequency

  3. High new/unique visitor traffic

    • This is expected for new sites
    • Hit rate improves over time
    • Monitor trends week-over-week

  4. User-specific content

    • Logged-in users can't use page cache
    • Show cached version to anonymous users
    • Use exclusions for user-specific pages

Performance Benchmarks​

Compare your metrics to these benchmarks:

Page Load Time (Good Range)​

  • First visit (cache miss): 500-2000ms
  • Repeat visit (cache hit): 100-500ms
  • Database queries only: 50-300ms

Improvement Expectations​

With Performance Toolkit optimizations enabled:

  • Page load: 30-60% faster
  • First Contentful Paint: 20-40% faster
  • Largest Contentful Paint: 15-30% faster
  • Total requests: 20-40% fewer
  • Bandwidth: 20-50% reduced

Real-World Example​

Before optimization:

  • Home page load: 5 seconds
  • Queries: 120
  • Bandwidth: 2.5 MB

After full optimization:

  • Home page load: 1-2 seconds (60-75% faster)
  • Queries: 20 (80% fewer)
  • Bandwidth: 0.5-1 MB (60-80% less)

System Health Indicators​

Green Indicators (Good)​

  • ✅ Cache hit rate > 70%
  • ✅ Page load < 1 second
  • ✅ Available disk space > 20%
  • ✅ PHP version 8.0+
  • ✅ Memory usage < 80%

Yellow Indicators (Warning)​

  • ⚠️ Cache hit rate 40-70%
  • ⚠️ Page load 1-3 seconds
  • ⚠️ Available disk space 10-20%
  • ⚠️ PHP version 7.4
  • ⚠️ Memory usage 80-95%

Red Indicators (Problem)​

  • ❌ Cache hit rate < 40%
  • ❌ Page load > 3 seconds
  • ❌ Available disk space < 10%
  • ❌ PHP version < 7.4
  • ❌ Memory usage > 95%

Acting on Recommendations​

The System Status page shows recommendations based on your metrics:

Recommendation Examples​

"Enable page caching for 3-5x load time improvement"

  • Action: Go to Performance Toolkit → Cache, enable and configure
  • Expected impact: 60-80% load time reduction

"Enable file minification to reduce asset sizes"

  • Action: Go to File Optimization, enable minify options
  • Expected impact: 20-40% bandwidth reduction

"Database cleanup will recover ~45MB"

  • Action: Go to Database, run cleanup
  • Expected impact: 5-15% query speedup

"Low disk space: consider cache clearing"

  • Action: Go to Tools → Clear Cache, or increase max cache size
  • Expected impact: Frees 100-500MB typically

Use System Status to track performance over time:

Daily Checks​

  • Cache hit rate trending up? (Good: cache gets warmer)
  • Page load stable? (Good: consistent performance)
  • Any errors or warnings? (Act on them)

Weekly Reviews​

  • Comparing to previous week?
  • Making progress with optimizations?
  • Any degradation? (Investigate changes)

Monthly Analysis​

  • Year-over-year improvement?
  • Cache effectiveness stable?
  • Any seasonal patterns?

Database Performance​

System Status includes database metrics:

Query Performance​

  • Slow query log — queries taking > 1 second
  • Total queries per page — aim for < 50
  • Database size — track trends
  • Index efficiency — are indexes being used?

Database Optimization​

If database queries seem slow:

  1. Run database cleanup — removes orphaned data
  2. Check for slow queries — System Status shows slow queries
  3. Enable caching — reduces query load
  4. Optimize plugins — uninstall unnecessary plugins
  5. Contact hosting — ask about database optimization

Exporting Metrics​

System Status data can be exported for:

  • Sharing with developers
  • Tracking in spreadsheet
  • Reporting to clients
  • Baseline before optimizations

Look for Export Report button or similar feature if available.

Troubleshooting​

Metrics seem wrong or outdated​

  1. Refresh page — hit refresh/F5
  2. Click "Refresh Metrics" button if available
  3. Clear cache — may be showing old data
  4. Wait a few minutes — metrics update periodically

Can't see System Status page​

  • Ensure Performance Toolkit is activated
  • Verify you have administrator permissions
  • Go to Performance Toolkit menu → System Status

Disk space not showing​

May not be available on all hosting:

  • Contact hosting provider
  • Use hosting control panel
  • Use FTP to check disk usage

Best Practices​

  • ✅ Check System Status weekly
  • ✅ Act on recommendations promptly
  • ✅ Track metrics over time
  • ✅ Use data to guide optimization decisions
  • ✅ Monitor after making changes

System Status is your window into your site's performance health. Use it to track progress and identify areas for improvement.

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