lighttpd, php5, eAccelerator by RPMs

Install the require RPMs (php, php-mysql, php-eAccelerator). For Fedora, use yum (lighttpd and lighttpd-fastcgi). For CentOS and other distros that do not include lighttpd in their repository, use DAG repository

Find out the path to php-cgi and whether it supports fastcgi (should show cgi-fcgi)

<br /> $ php-cgi -v<br /> PHP 5.0.4 (cgi-fcgi) (built: Nov 8 2005 08:25:54)<br /> Copyright (c) 1997-2004 The PHP Group<br /> Zend Engine v2.0.4-dev, Copyright (c) 1998-2004 Zend Technologies<br /> with eAccelerator v0.9.4, Copyright (c) 2004-2005 eAccelerator, by eAccelerator<br />

Configure a light weight lighttpd:
<br /> # lighttpd configuration file<br /> # @author: Son Nguyen<br /> # @date: 6/26/2006</p> <p>server.modules = (“mod_fastcgi”)<br /> server.document-root = “/home/www/”<br /> server.max-keep-alive-requests = 0<br /> server.max-fds = 2048<br /> server.port = 80</p> <p>server.errorlog = “/var/log/lighttpd/error_log”<br /> server.tag = “lighttpd”<br /> server.username = “lighttpd”<br /> server.groupname = “lighttpd”<br /> server.pid-file = “/var/run/lighttpd.pid”</p> <p>#### fastcgi module<br /> fastcgi.server = (“.php”=>(“localhost”=>(“socket”=>”/tmp/php-fastcgi.socket”,”bin-path”=>”/usr/bin/php-cgi”)))</p> <p># files to check for if …/ is requested<br /> index-file.names = (“index.php”,”index.html”,”index.htm”,”default.htm”)</p> <p># which extensions should not be handle via static-file transfer<br /> # .php, .pl, .fcgi are most often handled by mod_fastcgi or mod_cgi<br /> static-file.exclude-extensions = ( “.php”, “.pl”, “.fcgi” )</p> <p># mimetype mapping<br /> mimetype.assign = (<br /> “.rpm” => “application/x-rpm”,<br /> “.pdf” => “application/pdf”,<br /> “.sig” => “application/pgp-signature”,<br /> “.spl” => “application/futuresplash”,<br /> “.class” => “application/octet-stream”,<br /> “.ps” => “application/postscript”,<br /> “.torrent” => “application/x-bittorrent”,<br /> “.dvi” => “application/x-dvi”,<br /> “.gz” => “application/x-gzip”,<br /> “.pac” => “application/x-ns-proxy-autoconfig”,<br /> “.swf” => “application/x-shockwave-flash”,<br /> “.tar.gz” => “application/x-tgz”,<br /> “.tgz” => “application/x-tgz”,<br /> “.tar” => “application/x-tar”,<br /> “.zip” => “application/zip”,<br /> “.mp3” => “audio/mpeg”,<br /> “.m3u” => “audio/x-mpegurl”,<br /> “.wma” => “audio/x-ms-wma”,<br /> “.wax” => “audio/x-ms-wax”,<br /> “.ogg” => “application/ogg”,<br /> “.wav” => “audio/x-wav”,<br /> “.gif” => “image/gif”,<br /> “.jpg” => “image/jpeg”,<br /> “.jpeg” => “image/jpeg”,<br /> “.png” => “image/png”,<br /> “.xbm” => “image/x-xbitmap”,<br /> “.xpm” => “image/x-xpixmap”,<br /> “.xwd” => “image/x-xwindowdump”,<br /> “.css” => “text/css”,<br /> “.html” => “text/html”,<br /> “.htm” => “text/html”,<br /> “.js” => “text/javascript”,<br /> “.asc” => “text/plain”,<br /> “.c” => “text/plain”,<br /> “.cpp” => “text/plain”,<br /> “.log” => “text/plain”,<br /> “.conf” => “text/plain”,<br /> “.text” => “text/plain”,<br /> “.txt” => “text/plain”,<br /> “.dtd” => “text/xml”,<br /> “.xml” => “text/xml”,<br /> “.mpeg” => “video/mpeg”,<br /> “.mpg” => “video/mpeg”,<br /> “.mov” => “video/quicktime”,<br /> “.qt” => “video/quicktime”,<br /> “.avi” => “video/x-msvideo”,<br /> “.asf” => “video/x-ms-asf”,<br /> “.asx” => “video/x-ms-asf”,<br /> “.wmv” => “video/x-ms-wmv”,<br /> “.bz2” => “application/x-bzip”,<br /> “.tbz” => “application/x-bzip-compressed-tar”,<br /> “.tar.bz2” => “application/x-bzip-compressed-tar”<br /> )<br />

Might need to switch from httpd to lighttpd

# switch from httpd to lighttpd
service httpd stop
service lighttpd start
chkconfig --list httpd
chkconfig lighttpd on
chkconfig httpd off
chkconfig --list httpd
chkconfig --list lighttpd

Can also run both httpd and lighttpd together on the same server (use two different ports, eg: 80 & 81, don’t forget to open the new port in the firewall) for testing/benchmarking or development purposes.

Initial benchmark: a 10-15% improvement on serving dynamic PHP/MySQL pages. Static files are supposed to be much faster. lighttpd is very stable (loadavg is maintained at about 3-4) with higher concurrency levels while Apache might increase loadavg to over 10+

Great kudos to the lighttpd developers for bringing us a fast, light webserver. Fly Light!