I have a blog, dynamic (php) and static content (images, css, js). I googled a lot to find benchmarks on each server and figured out that there's actually no best server. Therefore I'm looking for returns on experience to choose the good combination.
Update in response to wheaties: well, my needs are I think, the same as everyone; I need all my pages to load quickly--including static content--an I need the highest HTTP queries/second rate possible. Also, if it can help, I'm using MongoDB. Btw, do I still need to cache my DB queries with this?
Regarding Apache and Nginx:
I used Apache for almost 10 years. Then I discovered Nginx.
Quickly I found Nginx appealing
simple and powerful C code
configuration syntax is intuitive and elegant
Nginx was built with performance and efficiency in mind. It is incredibly efficient, even with thousands of connections.
php-fpm works well with Nginx
So, I would recommend, between the two (Apache and Nginx), Nginx.
Lighttpd is well known for serving static content. Nginx is a good option for dynamic (php) pages. I've heard of few sites which use lighttpd only for serving static content.
Lighttpd for static content and some caching scripts for dynamic (PHP).
Related
I am currently hosting the contents of a site with ProviderA. I have a domain registered with ProviderB. I want users to access the contents (www.providerA.com/sub/content) by visiting www.providerB.com. A domain forward is easy enough and works as intended, however, unless I embed the site in a frame (which is a big no-no), the actual URL reads www.providerA.com/sub/content despite the user inputting www.providerB.com.
I really need a solution for this. A domain masking without the use of a frame. I'm sure this has been done before. An .htaccess domain rewrite?
Your help would be hugely appreciated! I'm going nuts trying to find a solution.
For Apache
Usual way: setup mod_proxy. The apache on providerB becomes a client to providerA's apache. It gets the content and sends it back to the client.
But looks like you only have .htaccess. So no proxy, you need full configuration access for that.
So you cannot, see: How to set up proxy in .htaccess
If you have PHP on providerB
Setup a proxy written in PHP. All requests to providerB are intercepted by that PHP proxy. It gets the content from providerA and sends it back. So it does the same thing as the Apache module. However, depending on the quality of the implementation, it might fail on some requests, types, sizes, timeouts, ...
Search for "php proxy" on the web, you will see a couple available on GitHub and others. YMMV as to how difficult it is to setup, and the reliability.
No PHP but some other server side language
Obviously that could be done in another language, I checked PHP because that is what I use the most.
The best solution would be to transfer the content to providerB :-)
I am currently migrating my website from Apache to nginx, but my .htaccess file is not working. My website is inside the /usr/share/nginx/html/mywebsite folder. How can I use .htaccess in my nginx server?
This is my .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule video/watch/([a-zA-Z0-9_#$*-]+)/?$ "videos-single.php?id=$1" [NC]
Nginx doesn't support .htaccess (see here: "You can’t do this. You shouldn’t. If you need .htaccess, you’re probably doing it wrong.").
You've two choices (as I know):
import your .htaccess to nginx.conf (maybe the htaccess to nginx converter helps you)
use authd-htpasswd (I didn't try it)
Disclosure: I am the author of htaccess for nginx, which is now open source software.
Over the past years, I created a plugin which implements htaccess behaviour into nginx, especially things like RewriteRule, Allow and Deny, which can be crucial for web security. The plugin is used in my own productive environments without a problem.
I totally share the point of efficiency and speed in nginx, and why they didn't implement htaccess.
However, think about it. You cannot make it worse if you're using nginx plus htaccess. You still keep the great performance of nginx, plus you can drive your legacy appliances effortlessly on one webserver.
This is not supported officially in nginx. If you need this kind of functionality you will need to use Apache or some other http server which supports it.
That said, the official nginx reasoning is flawed because it conflates what users want to do with the way it is done. For example, nginx could easily check the directories only every 10 seconds / minute or so, or it could use inotify and similar mechanisms. This would avoid the need to check it on every request... But knowing that doesn't help you. :)
You could get around this limitation by writing a script that would wait for nginx config files to appear and then copy them to /etc/nginx/conf.d/. However there might be some security implications - as there is no native support for .htaccess in nginx, there is also no support for limiting allowed configuration directives in config files. YMMV.
Using the config file is one option, but the cool thing about the .htaccess file is that it provided a way for a web developer to have some control over server settings without having root access to the server. There doesn't seem to be anything like this on nginx which is a real bummer.
I understand how the way it's setup on apache slows down response times, but hoped there could be an nginx way to do the same thing without the performance hit... At least a way to do rewrites with regex on urls if nothing else.
"Is there no nginx way to do bulk redirects using regular expressions that doesn't slow down response times."
Just edit your database with myphpmyadmin.
Open myphpmyadmin select your database then find your "yourprefix_Posts" table.
Open it then click the "Search" tab, then "Find and Replace".
Select "post_content" in the dropdown
In the "Find" field, type URL you want to change: "website.com/oldURL".
In the "Replace" field, type the new URL: "website.com/newURL".
(To use regular expression, tick the "Regular Expression" box.)
NOTE: You can test this out by simply leaving the "Replace" field blank.
ALWAYS BACKUP database before making changes. This might sound scary but its really not. Its super simple and can be used to quickly replace just about anbything.
I google on the net and found two approaches to redirect incoming requests to apache in Ubuntu OS: 1) using httpd.conf and 2) using .htaccess.
I am confused. What are the differences between them?
Please share if you know how.
Thank you!
The .htaccess-file is meant to be used on shared servers where you don't have access to the primary Apache config files. It is generally a better idea to use httpd.conf or your site config rather than .htaccess if you can as this has a lower processing overhead (as far as I know, the .htaccess-file is parsed on each request), but both ways work fine.
The webserver hosting my website is not returning last-modified or expiry headers. I would like to rectify this to ensure my web content is cacheable.
I don't have access to the apache config files because the site is hosted on a shared environment that I have no control over. I can however make configurations via an .htaccess file. The server - apache 1.3 - is not configured with mod_expires or mod_headers and the company will not install these for me.
With these limitations in mind, what are my options?
Sorry for the post here. I recognise this question is not strictly a programming question, and more a sys admin question. When serverfault is public I'll make sure I direct questions of this nature there.
What sort of content? If static (HTML, images, CSS), then really the only way to attach headers is via the front-end webserver. I'm surprised the hosting company doesn't have mod_headers enabled, although they might not enable it for .htaccess. It's costing them more bandwidth and CPU (ie, money) to not cache.
If it's dynamic content, then you'll have control when generating the page. This will depend on your language; here's an example for PHP (it's from the PHP manual, and is a bad example, as it should also set the response code):
if (!headers_sent()) {
header('Location: http://www.example.com/');
exit;
}
Oh, and one thing about setting caching headers: don't set them for too long a duration, particularly for CSS and scripts. You may not think you want to change these, but you don't want a broken site while people still have the old content in their browsers. I would recommend maximum cache settings in the 4-8 hour range: good for a single user's session, or a work day, but not much more.
Do any of you folks do redirection by IP (within Apache) for people coming
to your website from different countries?
What do ye use? mod_geoip and/or a whole pile of mod_rewrite rules?
Is mod_geoip reliable/well-performing/accurate?
I used to use mod_geoip but recently dumped Apache for Cherokee (which has its own GEOIP logic).
I can't say I've had any performance problems with either but Cherokee is definitely easier to get set up.
Accuracy is pretty spot on but (obviously) neither cannot tell if somebody is browsing through a transparent proxy in another country.