APC

APC is a great operation code caching system for PHP that can help speed up your site.

Install APC

To install APC, execute the following command:

sudo apt-get install php-apc

php.ini configuration

Edit the php.ini file:

sudo vi /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

And add the following code:

[APC]
apc.enabled=1
apc.shm_segments=1

;32M per WordPress install
apc.shm_size=128M

;Relative to the number of cached files (you may need to watch your stats for a day or two to find out a good number)
apc.num_files_hint=7000

;Relative to the size of WordPress
apc.user_entries_hint=4096

;The number of seconds a cache entry is allowed to idle in a slot before APC dumps the cache
apc.ttl=7200
apc.user_ttl=7200
apc.gc_ttl=3600

;Setting this to 0 will give you the best performance, as APC will
;not have to check the IO for changes. However, you must clear
;the APC cache to recompile already cached files. If you are still
;developing, updating your site daily in WP-ADMIN, and running W3TC
;set this to 1
apc.stat=1

;This MUST be 0, WP can have errors otherwise!
apc.include_once_override=0

;Only set to 1 while debugging
apc.enable_cli=0

;Allow 2 seconds after a file is created before it is cached to prevent users from seeing half-written/weird pages
apc.file_update_protection=2

;Leave at 2M or lower. WordPress doesn't have any file sizes close to 2M
apc.max_file_size=2M

;Ignore files
apc.filters = "/var/www/apc.php"

apc.cache_by_default=1
apc.use_request_time=1
apc.slam_defense=0
apc.mmap_file_mask=/tmp/apc.XXXXXX
apc.stat_ctime=0
apc.canonicalize=1
apc.write_lock=1
apc.report_autofilter=0
apc.rfc1867=0
apc.rfc1867_prefix =upload_
apc.rfc1867_name=APC_UPLOAD_PROGRESS
apc.rfc1867_freq=0
apc.rfc1867_ttl=3600
apc.lazy_classes=0
apc.lazy_functions=0

source: http://gregrickaby.com/the-perfect-apc-configuration/

For more information about APC configuration, please read: http://www.php.net/manual/en/apc.configuration.php

Test APC

To see if APC is enabled and running, create a php file called info.php in your apache2 root folder and the following code:

<?php
phpinfo();

And go to your website and check if you see the APC module