Question: Is Memcached Persistent?
Answer
No, by default, Memcached is not persistent. It means that the data in Memcached does not persist after a restart or shutdown of the Memcached server. When the server restarts, it starts with an empty cache.
Memcached does not provide built-in options for persistent storage directly within its native functionality. Data in Memcached is stored in-memory and is ephemeral, which means it is lost if the server restarts or crashes.
It's important to note that there are alternative solutions and tools, such as Dragonfly or Redis, that offer similar caching capabilities with built-in persistence features. If persistence is a critical requirement for your use case, you may want to consider these alternatives.
Enabling persistence in any caching system can affect performance since writing data to disk is slower than writing to memory. Additionally, most systems do not provide guarantees about the durability of the data during unexpected failures. Therefore, it's generally recommended to use caching systems like Memcached only for non-critical data where performance is more crucial than persistence.
Here's a simple example of how to start Memcached:
```
memcached -m 64 -p 11211 -u memcached -l 127.0.0.1
```
In this setup, Memcached will run with a 64MB cache, listening on port 11211, using the memcached
user, and bound to localhost.
For scenarios requiring data persistence, consider exploring other solutions designed with that need in mind.
Was this content helpful?
Other Common Memcached Questions (and Answers)
- Does Memcached expire?
- Does Memcached write to disk?
- What is the location of Memcached error log?
- How does Memcached consistent hashing work?
- Does restarting Memcached clear cache?
- Does Memcached support encryption?
- How to pronounce Memcached?
- How to check Memcached version in Linux?
- How to install Memcached in CentOS 7?
- How is Memcached implemented?
- How to clear Memcached data?
- How does Memcached work in PHP?
Free System Design on AWS E-Book
Download this early release of O'Reilly's latest cloud infrastructure e-book: System Design on AWS.
Switch & save up to 80%
Dragonfly is fully compatible with the Redis ecosystem and requires no code changes to implement. Instantly experience up to a 25X boost in performance and 80% reduction in cost