W3 Total Cache plugin and New Relic

Question

I installed W3 Total Cache plugin for my site. When I tried to enable PACGE CACHE I got an error message regarding New Relic saying:

New Relic is not running correctly. The plugin has detected the following issues: * PHP module is not enabled. * PHP agent is not enabled. * API Key is invalid. * Account ID is not configured. * Application ID is not configured. Enter/Select application name. * License key could not be detected.

I'm not particularly knowledgable when it comes to performance area, so I don't know what all those things really mean - PHP agent, PHP module, etc.

When I went to New Relic website it seems that it is something to be present on the server side. Is that correct? Do I need to contact my hosting company to check on this or do I need to set up a personally account with New Relic?

Answer 1

New Relic is a monitoring tool that lets you see how WordPress is performing, and can warn you if your web site is running slowly, for example. You don't need it to run W3 Total Cache, but it can provide useful data.

You'll need to set up an account at newrelic.com - a free account should suffice. Once you have an account, you will also need to install some software on your server, which is New Relic's PHP Agent. Instructions for this are at https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/agents/php-agent . You will also need an API key from New Relic which you can find in your account settings. Paste the API key into the W3 Total Cache settings and you should be good to go.

There's a step-by-step guide that explains this in more detail at http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/using-new-relic-to-monitor-wordpress-performance--cms-22002 . Good luck!