Editing Wikipedia (section)

=== Hardware operations and support ===
[[File:Wikipedia webrequest 2022.png|alt=Diagram showing flow of data between Wikipedia's servers.|thumb|Overview of system architecture {{as of|2022|08|lc=on}}]]

{{As of|2021|post=,}} page requests are first passed to a front-end layer of [[Varnish (software)|Varnish]] caching servers and back-end layer [[caching]] is done by [[Apache Traffic Server]].<ref name=":14" group="W">{{cite web |title=Varnish |url=https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Varnish|access-date=February 2, 2023 |website=Wikitech |publisher=[[Wikimedia Foundation]]|archive-date=January 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120040423/https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Varnish|url-status=live}}</ref> Requests that cannot be served from the Varnish cache are sent to load-balancing servers running the [[Linux Virtual Server]] software, which in turn pass them to one of the Apache web servers for page rendering from the database.<ref name=":14" group="W" /> The web servers deliver pages as requested, performing page rendering for all the language editions of Wikipedia. To increase speed further, rendered pages are cached in a distributed memory cache until invalidated, allowing page rendering to be skipped entirely for most common page accesses.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Friedman |first=Vitaly |date=January 12, 2021 |title=Front-End Performance Checklist 2021 (PDF, Apple Pages, MS Word) |url=https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/01/front-end-performance-2021-free-pdf-checklist/|access-date=April 26, 2022 |website=[[Smashing Magazine]]|archive-date=April 1, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401164651/https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/01/front-end-performance-2021-free-pdf-checklist/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Wikipedia currently runs on dedicated [[computer cluster|cluster]]s of [[Linux]] servers running the [[Debian]] operating system.<ref group="W">{{Cite web |title=Debian |url=https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Debian|access-date=April 9, 2021 |website=Wikitech |publisher=[[Wikimedia Foundation]]|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418084905/https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Debian|url-status=live}}</ref> By January 22, 2013, Wikipedia had migrated its primary data center to an [[Equinix]] facility in [[Ashburn, Virginia]].<ref group="W" name=":0">{{cite web |last=Palmier |first=Guillaume |date=January 19, 2013 |title=Wikimedia sites to move to primary data center in Ashburn, Virginia |url=https://diff.wikimedia.org/2013/01/19/wikimedia-sites-move-to-primary-data-center-in-ashburn-virginia/|access-date=June 5, 2016 |website=Diff |publisher=[[Wikimedia Foundation]]|archive-date=July 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715011114/https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/01/19/wikimedia-sites-move-to-primary-data-center-in-ashburn-virginia/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/01/14/its-official-equinix-ashburn-is-wikimedias-home/ |title=It's Official: Ashburn is Wikipedia's New Home |first=Jason |last=Verge |publisher=Data Center Knowledge|access-date = June 5, 2016 |date=January 14, 2013|archive-date = July 15, 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180715011703/https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/01/14/its-official-equinix-ashburn-is-wikimedias-home/|url-status = live}}</ref> In 2017, Wikipedia installed a caching cluster in an Equinix facility in [[Singapore]], the first of its kind in Asia.<ref group="W">{{cite web |url=https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T156028 |title=⚓ T156028 Name Asia Cache DC site |website=Wikimedia Phabricator|access-date=May 12, 2019|archive-date=May 12, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512040933/https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T156028|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2022, a caching data center was opened in [[Marseille]], France.<ref group="W">{{Cite web |title=⚓ T282787 Configure dns and puppet repositories for new drmrs datacenter |url=https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T282787|access-date=February 2, 2023 |website=Wikimedia Phabricator|archive-date=February 10, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210114545/https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T282787|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2024, a caching data center was opened in [[São Paulo]], the first of its kind in South America.<ref group="W" name="Magru">{{cite web |last= |first= |date=July 26, 2024 |title=The journey to open our first data center in South America |url=https://diff.wikimedia.org/2024/07/26/the-journey-to-open-our-first-data-center-in-south-america/|access-date=November 29, 2024 |website=Diff |publisher=[[Wikimedia Foundation]]|archive-date=September 21, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240921054425/https://diff.wikimedia.org/2024/07/26/the-journey-to-open-our-first-data-center-in-south-america/|url-status=live}}</ref> {{As of|2024|11|post=,}} caching clusters are located in [[Amsterdam]], San Francisco, Singapore, Marseille, and São Paulo.<ref name=":13" group="W" /><ref group="W">{{Cite web |title=Data centers |url=https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data_centers|access-date=February 2, 2023 |website=Wikitech |publisher=[[Wikimedia Foundation]]|archive-date=January 29, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129081929/https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data_centers|url-status=live}}</ref>