Streamline Your Drupal Workflow with Acquia Dev Desktop

Advanced Configuration Tricks for Acquia Dev DesktopAcquia Dev Desktop is a popular local development environment for building and testing Drupal sites. While many users rely on its default setup, configuring Dev Desktop to fit your workflow can greatly improve performance, reliability, and developer productivity. This article covers advanced configuration tricks — from tuning system resources and PHP settings to managing multiple sites, debugging, syncing with Acquia Cloud, and automating repetitive tasks.

Why advanced configuration matters

Default settings are designed to work across many machines, but they aren’t optimized for every project. Advanced configuration helps you:

Improve site performance locally
Reproduce production environments more closely
Reduce time spent on setup and debugging
Smooth collaboration between team members

1. Choose the right Dev Desktop version and system compatibility

Before diving into advanced settings, ensure you’re running a version of Dev Desktop that supports your OS, PHP, and Drupal versions. older versions may be incompatible with PHP 7+ or Drupal ⁄₁₀. If you maintain multiple projects with differing PHP requirements, consider running separate Dev Desktop instances or using containers (Docker, Lando) for greater flexibility.

2. Optimize PHP and Apache/Nginx settings

PHP and the web server are central to performance. Tweaking their configurations yields noticeable improvements.

Increase memory_limit and max_execution_time for heavy imports, composer installs, or batch operations.
- Example: set memory_limit = 512M (or higher for large builds).
Enable and configure OPCache to speed up PHP execution by caching compiled bytecode.
- Set opcache.memory_consumption = 128 and opcache.validate_timestamps = 1 (or 0 for stable environments).
Adjust realpath_cache_size and realpath_cache_ttl for Drupal’s many file lookups.
- Example: realpath_cache_size = 4096k and realpath_cache_ttl = 600.
Tune Apache’s KeepAlive, MaxRequestWorkers (or prefork/worker settings), and Timeout values, or if using Nginx in front of PHP-FPM, tune worker_processes and php-fpm pm settings.

Make these changes in the Dev Desktop-provided php.ini and Apache/Nginx config files (back them up first). Restart Dev Desktop after edits.

3. Use multiple PHP versions and site-specific settings

Many projects require different PHP versions. Dev Desktop supports switching PHP versions, but for per-site specificity:

Create site-specific .htaccess or additional php.ini files where supported.
Use Apache’s SetEnv PHPRC or PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR directives to point a site to a custom php.ini.
Alternatively, run separate Dev Desktop installations with different PHP versions, or use containerized environments for per-site isolation.

4. Improve database performance and reliability

Local MySQL/MariaDB tuning helps with large databases and imports.

Increase innodb_buffer_pool_size to allow more of the DB to live in memory (e.g., 25–50% of available RAM on dev machine).
Adjust max_allowed_packet to handle large BLOBs or long queries.
Enable slow query logging to identify inefficient queries during development.

When importing large production databases, disable foreign key checks and set unique_checks=0 temporarily to speed up the process, then re-enable them.

5. Manage multiple sites and ports

Running many sites simultaneously can cause port conflicts.

Assign unique Apache ports to each site if necessary.
Use the hosts file to map local domain names (e.g., project1.test, project2.test) to 127.0.0.1 and configure Dev Desktop sites to use those hostnames.
Keep a simple spreadsheet (or text file) of assigned ports and hostnames to avoid collisions.

6. Speed up file-heavy operations

Drupal sites with many files (themes, modules, libraries) can be slowed by antivirus scanning and filesystem overhead.

Exclude Dev Desktop and project folders from real-time antivirus scanning.
For macOS users, avoid storing project files on slow network-mounted volumes; use local SSD storage.
Consider using a RAM disk for cache directories during heavy builds or CI tasks.

7. Configure Xdebug for efficient debugging

A well-tuned Xdebug setup makes step debugging practical without crippling performance.

Use Xdebug 3 with optimized settings: set xdebug.mode=develop,debug and xdebug.start_with_request=trigger to start only when needed (via a cookie/header).
Lower max_nesting_level if you run into recursion limits, but increase only when necessary.
Use path mappings in your IDE if your web server’s document root differs from your local project path.

8. Syncing with Acquia Cloud and handling environments

Dev Desktop integrates with Acquia Cloud for pulls/pushes, but large syncs can be slow.

Use Acquia’s rsync-based site syncs for code and files; avoid pulling unnecessary files (large private files, backups).
When pulling a database, run search-and-replace for environment-specific values (file paths, domain names). Use drush sql-sync or drush sqlc with care.
Automate post-sync tasks with a script: clear caches, run database updates (drush updb), rebuild search indexes.

Example post-sync script (bash):

drush sql-cli < /path/to/dump.sql drush cr drush updb -y drush entity-updates -y

9. Automate repetitive tasks with scripts and Composer

Use Composer for dependency management; configure platform PHP version to match production:
- composer config platform.php 7.4

Add Composer scripts for common tasks (build, test, clear caches):


"scripts": { "post-install-cmd": [ "Drush\Commands\Example::postInstall" ], "dev:clear": "drush cr" }

Create shell/Makefile scripts to set up new developer environments quickly (import DB, enable modules, install config).

10. Use advanced logging and monitoring

Configure Drupal’s logging (watchdog/syslog) to a file rather than the database during heavy local development.
Monitor PHP-FPM/Apache memory and CPU with local tools (htop, Activity Monitor) to catch leaks or runaway processes early.

11. Work with SSL locally

Use self-signed or locally trusted certificates for testing HTTPS behavior.

Create and trust a local CA and generate per-site certs, or use tools like mkcert to automate certificate creation and trust.
Configure Dev Desktop’s Apache to use the generated certificates and ensure your local hostname is included in the certificate SANs.

12. Replace or augment Dev Desktop with containerization when needed

For complex projects or microservices, containers offer reproducible environments.

Use Docker or Lando to define service versions explicitly (PHP, MySQL, Redis, Solr).
Migrate only when the added complexity is justified; for teams, container orchestration reduces “works on my machine” issues.

13. Backup and version-control local configurations

Store your project-specific Dev Desktop configs (apache vhosts, php.ini tweaks, scripts) in version control (keeping secrets out).
Keep a README for team members documenting required local settings and how to reproduce them.

Common pitfalls and troubleshooting

Port conflicts: check Dev Desktop’s logs and assigned ports.
Permission issues: ensure file ownership matches the web server user, adjust umask or chown as needed.
Slow disk I/O: prefer SSD and local storage; disable unnecessary file watchers.

Quick checklist for advanced Dev Desktop setup

Increase PHP memory_limit and enable OPCache.
Tune MySQL innodb_buffer_pool_size.
Configure Xdebug to start on trigger.
Use mkcert for trusted local SSL.
Exclude project folders from antivirus scanning.
Automate post-sync tasks with scripts.

Advanced configuration of Acquia Dev Desktop can save hours of frustration and make your local environment behave more like production. The tricks above help you tune performance, manage multiple projects, and automate common workflows so you spend less time on setup and more time building.