Koha Hacks: How to Enable Plack on Koha Library System (Running On Ubuntu 20.04LTS)

Is your Koha server taking too long to catalog or checkout items? Before you break the bank and purchase a bigger server with bucket-loads of RAM and processing power, enable Plack instead – It will make your server much faster, and  you might just save yourself a lot of time and money!

Koha Hacks: How to Enable Plack on Koha Library System (Running On Ubuntu 20.04LTS)

Is your Koha server taking too long to catalog or checkout items? Before you break the bank and purchase a bigger server with bucket-loads of RAM and processing power, enable Plack instead – It will make your server much faster, and  you might just save yourself a lot of time and money!

How to Enable Plack in Koha Library System

Plack is “an interface between Perl web applications and web servers” and makes Koha’s modules persistant so that they don’t have to be loaded everytime they are needed. Plack makes Koha work faster – much, much faster. One test showed that it increased Koha’s processes by 25% and reduced the server load by 70% (this means Plack enables a server to handle the same computational processes with more than 2 times few resources as another server without Plack). 

Plack is included in Koha by default but sometimes it may need to be enabled (again check your About Koha page to see if it’s running or not).  Do the following:

sudo koha-plack --enable library
sudo koha-plack --start library
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

Then check your Home > About Koha page. You should have “PSGI: Plack (deployment)” under Server Information if Plack is running and configured correctly.

Tweaking Your Koha Library Server

Pro Tip: You should regularly check Koha’s Home > About Koha page. It gives you a quick overview of your server information. If there are any errors, missing applications or dependencies that might be slowing down your server, they will show up here. Now, read on to find out how to make the most of Koha library system.

Koha ILS About Page

Speed is of the essence in today’s world so it’s important you optimize your Koha library system server to ensure your patrons and staff can do their work quickly and efficiently. Let me know how implementing these hacks went for you in the comments. And if you need help, don’t hesitate to get in touch. 

Koha Support provides hassle-free Koha installation and cloud hosting as well as training, data migration, customization and technical support. Check out our packages and start your free trial today!

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