Cleaning the cache on an EC2 instance on AWS can involve different types of cache, such as web server cache, application cache, system cache, and others. Below are instructions on how to clean various types of cache on an Ubuntu EC2 instance.

Clearing System Cache

Clear the PageCache, dentries, and inodes

To free up the system cache, you can use the following commands:

sudo sync; sudo sysctl -w vm.drop_caches=3

Free up memory and cache

To clear the memory cache:

sudo sh -c "echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches"

Clearing Web Server Cache

For Apache:

Restart Apache to Clear the Cache

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Clear Specific Cache Directories (if used)

If you have set up specific cache directories in your Apache configuration, clear them manually:

sudo rm -rf /var/cache/apache2/*

For Nginx:

Restart Nginx to Clear the Cache

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Clear Specific Cache Directories (if used)

If you have set up specific cache directories in your Nginx configuration, clear them manually:

sudo rm -rf /var/cache/nginx/*

Clearing Application Cache (e.g., Laravel)

For Laravel:

Clear Laravel Cache Using Artisan Commands

Navigate to your Laravel project directory and run the following commands:

cd /path/to/your/laravel/project

php artisan cache:clear

php artisan config:clear

php artisan route:clear

php artisan view:clear

Clear Compiled Files

php artisan clear-compiled

Optimize Cache (optional)

php artisan optimize

Clearing PHP Cache

For OPCache:

Clear OPCache

Create a PHP file (e.g., clear_opcache.php) with the following content:

php

<?php

opcache_reset();

echo "OPCache has been reset.";

?>

Run this file by accessing it via your web browser:

http://your-ec2-instance-public-dns/clear_opcache.php

Remove the file after use

rm /path/to/your/laravel/public/clear_opcache.php

Clearing DNS Cache

For Ubuntu:

Install nscd (if not installed)

sudo apt-get install nscd

Clear DNS Cache

sudo systemctl restart nscd