--- title: "Installing Acquia Purge" date: "2024-02-14T06:18:38+00:00" summary: "Learn how to install Acquia Purge to improve website performance by automating content updates in Cloud Platform environments." image: type: "page" url: "/resources/installing-acquia-purge" id: "55860dd6-e8e7-4950-a188-31a2a8686237" --- Caching content on your website is an important step towards improving your website’s performance. Identifying and purging content changes translates to improved timeliness of content for site visitors while maximizing the sites’ response times and ability to scale. The [Acquia Purge](https://drupal.org/project/acquia_purge) module was designed from the ground up to automate the management of updating content in Cloud Platform, and therefore ideally a Varnish-cached, website. With this module, you can purge all load balancers on Cloud Platform. Important Acquia recommends that you test your website with Acquia Purge on a clone or copy of your Drupal website in a test server environment before you upgrade your production server. Installing Acquia Purge ----------------------- ### CURRENT DRUPAL VERSION 1. Add [Purge](https://www.drupal.org/project/purge) and [Acquia Purge](https://www.drupal.org/project/acquia_purge) modules to the codebase of your application running the [current Drupal version](../../support/guide/software-life-cycle.html#supported-drupal-version). You must always use the latest available release. Enable the following modules: * `purge` * `purge_ui` * `purge_queuer_coretags` * `purge_processor_cron` * `purge_processor_lateruntime` * `acquia_purge` 2. To increase your TTL or max-age to 1 month: 1. Navigate to `/admin/config/development/performance`. 2. In the **Page cache maximum age** drop-down menu, select **1 month** in the **Caching** section. Alternatively, you can use Drush as follows: $ drush @site.env config-set -y system.performance cache.page.max_age 2764800 3. Navigate to `/admin/config/development/performance/purge`, and click the **Add purger** option in the **Cache invalidation** section. The system displays a pop-up window to confirm the purger that you want to add. By default, Cloud Platform is selected. 1. Click **Add**. After the purger is added, a green tick appears in the **TAG** column. Alternatively, you can use Drush to add the purger: $ drush p-purger-add --if-not-exists acquia_purge The purger is created. 2. To confirm that your setup is complete, access `/admin/config/development/performance/purge`, or run `drush purge-diagnostics`. If all checks return `OK`, you’re all set. drush @site.env p-diagnostics ![resources_acquia-purge-diagnostics.png](https://acquia.widen.net/content/01671c40-7fe6-482f-b983-82cb6c2707a1/web/resources_acquia-purge-diagnostics.png?w=720&itok=nSZBbxzo) Note If you do not see the **Add purger** option, rebuild caches. ### DRUPAL 7 The following procedure is based on Acquia Purge [7.x-1.3](https://www.drupal.org/node/2529946). 1. Ensure that the site does not have any of the following incompatible modules enabled. Disable and then uninstall them if they are enabled: * [Purge](https://drupal.org/project/purge) * [Varnish](https://drupal.org/project/varnish) * [Boost](https://drupal.org/project/boost) For more information about these modules and other modules that have issues with Cloud Platform, see [Modules and applications incompatible with Cloud Platform](../../cloud-platform/develop/drupal/module-incompatibilities.html). 2. [Check out a local copy of your code](../../cloud-platform/develop/repository/checkout.html) and work from there. Add the [Cache Expiration](https://drupal.org/project/expire) and [Acquia Purge](https://drupal.org/project/acquia_purge) modules to your site by using the following Drush command or your preferred method. The Cache Expiration module tracks what needs to be purged. drush dl expire acquia_purge For information about installing and enabling modules, see [Installing modules and themes](https://drupal.org/documentation/install/modules-themes). 3. After you install the module, [update your code repository](../../cloud-platform/develop/repository/update.html). 4. Enable both modules, either on the Module page or with the following Drush command: drush en expire acquia_purge The Acquia Purge module gives editor roles a visually indicative progress bar upon saving content, using the **Purge on-screen** permission. This is what the progress bar will look like: ![resources_acquia-purge.png](https://acquia.widen.net/content/b0dbd5ff-8e7e-40f0-8af9-ca420ae64056/web/resources_acquia-purge.png) 5. Visit the **Status report** page at **Admin** > **Reports** > **Status report**, or run `drush ap-diagnosis` in your site’s Unix shell. This causes Acquia Purge to perform diagnostic tests and flag known configuration issues. If the status report doesn’t flag any potential issues, you have successfully installed Acquia Purge. Flagged issues should point to documentation to help correct those issues. Acquia Purge is now idle and waiting for changes within your site that need to be purged from the Cloud Platform load balancers. Next step --------- Although Acquia Purge is in use on your site, it’s not yet configured for optimal results. For information about how you can optimize Acquia Purge for your site, see: * [Current Drupal version](/service-offerings/guide/software-life-cycle#supported-drupal-version): [Configuring Acquia Purge](/acquia-cloud-platform/help/92966-using-acquia-purge-cache-tags-invalidation-current-drupal-version "Using Acquia Purge & cache tags invalidation for current Drupal version") * Drupal 7: [Configuring Acquia Purge](/acquia-cloud-platform/help/92161-configuring-acquia-purge-drupal-7 "Configuring Acquia Purge for Drupal 7"). Module questions and comments ----------------------------- If you have any questions or comments about the module for its maintainer, or you’ve found a bug or some other issue, you can file an issue in the [issue queue](https://drupal.org/project/issues/acquia_purge).