Magento 2 + Varnish - Somehow creates different cached version for visits with recent browse activity

Question

My Magento 2 setup with Varnish normalises user agents to pc/mobile/bot. It is configured to store different cached versions per user agent.

The caching per user agent works great, but it seems to be caching a separate version for users with/without recent history as well. I'm assuming this has something to do with cookies being set, but I really have no idea how to tackle the issue. Is anyone familiar with this issue?

Expected result for page:

• Cached version for mobile
• Cached version for pc
• Cached version for bot

Actual result for page:

• Cached version for mobile new visitors' 1st page visit (tested with incognito mode)
• Cached version for mobile with recent activity (eg. browsing through the site, having previously visited, etc.)

---

• Cached version for pc new visitors' 1st page visit (tested with incognito mode)
• Cached version for pc recent activity (eg. browsing through the site, having previously visited, etc.)

---

• Cached version for bot new visitors' 1st page visit (tested with incognito mode)
• Cached version for bot recent activity (eg. browsing through the site, having previously visited, etc.)

---

UPDATE 1: Here's the VCL file and screenshots of the headers.

# VCL version 5.0 is not supported so it should be 4.0 even though actually used Varnish version is 6
vcl 4.0;

import std;
# The minimal Varnish version is 6.0
# For SSL offloading, pass the following header in your proxy server or load balancer: 'X-Forwarded-Proto: https'

backend default {
    .host = "#######";
    .port = "8080";
    .first_byte_timeout = 600s;
    .probe = {
        .url = "/pub/health_check.php";
        .timeout = 2s;
        .interval = 5s;
        .window = 10;
        .threshold = 5;
   }
}

acl purge {
    "localhost";
    "####";
}


include "devicedetect.vcl";


sub vcl_recv {

    call devicedetect;
    

    if (req.restarts > 0) {
        set req.hash_always_miss = true;
    }

    if (req.method == "PURGE") {
        if (client.ip !~ purge) {
            return (synth(405, "Method not allowed"));
        }
        # To use the X-Pool header for purging varnish during automated deployments, make sure the X-Pool header
        # has been added to the response in your backend server config. This is used, for example, by the
        # capistrano-magento2 gem for purging old content from varnish during it's deploy routine.
        if (!req.http.X-Magento-Tags-Pattern && !req.http.X-Pool) {
            return (synth(400, "X-Magento-Tags-Pattern or X-Pool header required"));
        }
        if (req.http.X-Magento-Tags-Pattern) {
          ban("obj.http.X-Magento-Tags ~ " + req.http.X-Magento-Tags-Pattern);
        }
        if (req.http.X-Pool) {
          ban("obj.http.X-Pool ~ " + req.http.X-Pool);
        }
        return (synth(200, "Purged"));
    }

    if (req.method != "GET" &&
        req.method != "HEAD" &&
        req.method != "PUT" &&
        req.method != "POST" &&
        req.method != "TRACE" &&
        req.method != "OPTIONS" &&
        req.method != "DELETE") {
          /* Non-RFC2616 or CONNECT which is weird. */
          return (pipe);
    }

    # We only deal with GET and HEAD by default
    if (req.method != "GET" && req.method != "HEAD") {
        return (pass);
    }

    # Bypass shopping cart, checkout and search requests
    if (req.url ~ "/checkout" || req.url ~ "checkout" || req.url ~ "/onestepcheckout" || req.url ~ "/catalogsearch") {
        return (pass);
    }

    # Bypass health check requests
    if (req.url ~ "/pub/health_check.php") {
        return (pass);
    }

    # Set initial grace period usage status
    set req.http.grace = "none";

    # normalize url in case of leading HTTP scheme and domain
    set req.url = regsub(req.url, "^http[s]?://", "");

    # collect all cookies
    std.collect(req.http.Cookie);

    # Compression filter. See https://www.varnish-cache.org/trac/wiki/FAQ/Compression
    if (req.http.Accept-Encoding) {
        if (req.url ~ "\.(jpg|jpeg|webp|png|gif|gz|tgz|bz2|tbz|mp3|ogg|swf|flv)$") {
            # No point in compressing these
            unset req.http.Accept-Encoding;
        } elsif (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "gzip") {
            set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "gzip";
        } elsif (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "deflate" && req.http.user-agent !~ "MSIE") {
            set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "deflate";
        } else {
            # unknown algorithm
            unset req.http.Accept-Encoding;
        }
    }

    # Remove all marketing get parameters to minimize the cache objects
    if (req.url ~ "(\?|&)(gclid|cx|ie|cof|siteurl|zanpid|origin|fbclid|mc_[a-z]+|utm_[a-z]+|_bta_[a-z]+)=") {
        set req.url = regsuball(req.url, "(gclid|cx|ie|cof|siteurl|zanpid|origin|fbclid|mc_[a-z]+|utm_[a-z]+|_bta_[a-z]+)=[-_A-z0-9+()%.]+&?", "");
        set req.url = regsub(req.url, "[?|&]+$", "");
    }

    # Static files caching
    if (req.url ~ "^/(pub/)?(media|static)/") {
        # Static files should not be cached by default
        return (pass);

        # But if you use a few locales and don't use CDN you can enable caching static files by commenting previous line (#return (pass);) and uncommenting next 3 lines
        #unset req.http.Https;
        #unset req.http.X-Forwarded-Proto;
        #unset req.http.Cookie;
    }

    # Authenticated GraphQL requests should not be cached by default
    if (req.url ~ "/graphql" && req.http.Authorization ~ "^Bearer") {
        return (pass);
    }


    return (hash);
}



sub vcl_backend_fetch {

    if (bereq.http.X-UA-Device) {
        set bereq.http.User-Agent = bereq.http.X-UA-Device;
    } 

}



sub vcl_hash {

    if (req.http.cookie ~ "X-Magento-Vary=") {
        hash_data(regsub(req.http.cookie, "^.*?X-Magento-Vary=([^;]+);*.*$", "\1"));
    }

    # For multi site configurations to not cache each other's content
    if (req.http.host) {
        hash_data(req.http.host);
    } else {
        hash_data(server.ip);
    }

    # To make sure http users don't see ssl warning
    if (req.http.X-Forwarded-Proto) {
        hash_data(req.http.X-Forwarded-Proto);
    }

    if (req.url ~ "/graphql") {
        call process_graphql_headers;
    }

}


sub process_graphql_headers {
    
    if (req.http.Store) {
        hash_data(req.http.Store);
    }
    
    if (req.http.Content-Currency) {
        hash_data(req.http.Content-Currency);
    }
}


sub vcl_backend_response {

    if (bereq.http.X-UA-Device) {
        if (!beresp.http.Vary) { # no Vary at all
            set beresp.http.Vary = "X-UA-Device";
        } elsif (beresp.http.Vary !~ "X-UA-Device") { # add to existing Vary
            set beresp.http.Vary = beresp.http.Vary + ", X-UA-Device";
        }
    }
    set beresp.http.X-UA-Device = bereq.http.X-UA-Device;

    set beresp.grace = 3d;

    if (beresp.http.content-type ~ "text") {
        set beresp.do_esi = true;
    }

    if (bereq.url ~ "\.js$" || beresp.http.content-type ~ "text") {
        set beresp.do_gzip = true;
    }

    if (beresp.http.X-Magento-Debug) {
        set beresp.http.X-Magento-Cache-Control = beresp.http.Cache-Control;
    }

    # cache only successfully responses and 404s
    if (beresp.status != 200 && beresp.status != 404) {
        set beresp.ttl = 0s;
        set beresp.uncacheable = true;
        return (deliver);
    } elsif (beresp.http.Cache-Control ~ "private") {
        set beresp.uncacheable = true;
        set beresp.ttl = 86400s;
        return (deliver);
    }

    # validate if we need to cache it and prevent from setting cookie
    if (beresp.ttl > 0s && (bereq.method == "GET" || bereq.method == "HEAD")) {
        unset beresp.http.set-cookie;
    }

   # If page is not cacheable then bypass varnish for 2 minutes as Hit-For-Pass
   if (beresp.ttl <= 0s ||
       beresp.http.Surrogate-control ~ "no-store" ||
       (!beresp.http.Surrogate-Control &&
       beresp.http.Cache-Control ~ "no-cache|no-store") ||
       beresp.http.Vary == "*") {
        # Mark as Hit-For-Pass for the next 2 minutes
        set beresp.ttl = 120s;
        set beresp.uncacheable = true;
    }

    return (deliver);
}



sub vcl_deliver {

    if (obj.hits > 0) {
        set resp.http.X-Cache = "cached";
    } else {
        set resp.http.X-Cache = "uncached";
    }

    if ((req.http.X-UA-Device) && (resp.http.Vary)) {
        set resp.http.Vary = regsub(resp.http.Vary, "X-UA-Device", "User-Agent");
 
    }

    if (resp.http.X-Magento-Debug) {
        if (resp.http.x-varnish ~ " ") {
            set resp.http.X-Magento-Cache-Debug = "HIT";
            set resp.http.Grace = req.http.grace;
        } else {
            set resp.http.X-Magento-Cache-Debug = "MISS";
        }
    } else {
        unset resp.http.Age;
    }

    # Not letting browser to cache non-static files.
    if (resp.http.Cache-Control !~ "private" && req.url !~ "^/(pub/)?(media|static)/") {
        set resp.http.Pragma = "no-cache";
        set resp.http.Expires = "-1";
        set resp.http.Cache-Control = "no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, max-age=0";
    }

    unset resp.http.X-Magento-Debug;
    unset resp.http.X-Magento-Tags;
    unset resp.http.X-Powered-By;
    unset resp.http.Server;
    unset resp.http.X-Varnish;
    unset resp.http.Via;
    unset resp.http.Link;
}

sub vcl_hit {
    if (obj.ttl >= 0s) {
        # Hit within TTL period
        return (deliver);
    }
    if (std.healthy(req.backend_hint)) {
        if (obj.ttl + 300s > 0s) {
            # Hit after TTL expiration, but within grace period
            set req.http.grace = "normal (healthy server)";
            return (deliver);
        } else {
            # Hit after TTL and grace expiration
            return (restart);
        }
    } else {
        # server is not healthy, retrieve from cache
        set req.http.grace = "unlimited (unhealthy server)";
        return (deliver);
    }
}

Headers of a 1st visit (with cache hit)

Headers of a visit with recent browse activity on site (with cache hit)

Answer 1

Your problem is related to unnecessary cache variations.

VCL is responsible for creating cache variations through the following code:

sub vcl_hash {

    if (req.http.cookie ~ "X-Magento-Vary=") {
        hash_data(regsub(req.http.cookie, "^.*?X-Magento-Vary=([^;]+);*.*$", "\1"));
    }

    # For multi site configurations to not cache each other's content
    if (req.http.host) {
        hash_data(req.http.host);
    } else {
        hash_data(server.ip);
    }

    # To make sure http users don't see ssl warning
    if (req.http.X-Forwarded-Proto) {
        hash_data(req.http.X-Forwarded-Proto);
    }

    if (req.url ~ "/graphql") {
        call process_graphql_headers;
    }

}

On top of the the URL and Host header variations, this custom vcl_hash logic will also create cache variations based on the X-Forwarded-Proto header, which makes total sense. It ensures there's a variation for http:// and for https://, which avoids ending up in a redirect loop.

There's also the X-Magento-Vary cookie which may also create variations.

We must not forget that HTTP has built-in support for cache variations through the Vary header. Varnish applies these variations on top of what is in vcl_hash.

In your case that's:

Vary: User-Agent, Accept-Encoding

The Accept-Encoding part makes sense: you need to make sure clients that don't support compression (Gzip, Brotli) get a plain text version.

However, the User-Agent variation makes no sense what so ever. Because there's no validation or limitation, there's going to be an uncontrollable amount of variations.

Please get rid of Vary: User-Agent.

In terms of device variations, there's already the X-UA-Device header that is used inside vcl_backend_response, which should do the trick.

Long story short: Vary: User-Agent is causing too many cache variations, wich results in a low hit rate.