Recently a 'consultant' came in to talk to bean counters at my place of employment, with regards to being more efficient with our IT infrastructure.
They suggested to be more efficient we should only load the Apache modules that are required on our web servers. (This is just 1 of 1Ks of suggestions). The Bean Counters are very excited, and prepared for me to spend the time to investigate this avenue of cost cutting.
I don't mind this mundane exercise, I see it as a learning experience!
I guess this leads me to the actual question: How can I determine the minimum required apache modules for a PHP based application without actually going through the code, or plain old trial and error?
Best Answer
Your consultant is blowing smoke. And probably getting very highly paid to do so. We're all in the wrong business...
There are good reasons to limit the Apache modules that you install and use. Security and stability come to mind as the top reasons. But efficiency? Do they mean power savings? Unused code doesn't consume any electricity. I can't imagine what is supposed to be meant by this. You've spent more than a year's power savings from such "efficiency" just typing out your question.
As for WordPress, its requirements are pretty minimal. You don't even need Apache...
And advise the bean counters that they aren't getting their money's worth from that
moronconsultant. I'd ballpark the savings from this one at around 3 cents per year per server. You can use that as an example of the quality of recommendations you're receiving.