Tips & Tricks

Tuning PHP

on Windows & IISMark Brown

Microsoft Corporation

mark.brown@microsoft.com

@markjbrown

Tip #1 – Use IIS 7• PHP on IIS6 and Prior

– CGI – Slow as hell (1 request = 1 process)– ISAPI – Fast but unstable (mixed threading)

• IIS 7– Blew up IIS6– Modular Architecture– Default Minimum Installation– Streamlined Processing Pipeline– Uses FastCGI to handle PHP requests

• FastCGI now available for IIS 6

Tip #2 – Use Fast CGI• Uses an App Pool to process requests

– No CreateProc() for each Request!!!

• App Pool Size is configurable– Adjust AppPoolSize according to load to

maximize response time

• Automatic Tuning Capability– Set AppPoolSize = 0– Memory, Context Switches, CPU

• Auto Tuning useful if hosting many sites on same IIS server– Better density, site only uses resources it needs

Tip #3 – Use PHP 5.3• Feature & Security parity• Faster File IO on network shares• Win32 Codebase, not POSIX• New Windows build scripts• Compiled with VC9 vs. VC6

– Compile yourself to optimize further

• Non-Thread Safe binary for Windows– No NTS checks

• Make sure your extensions are NTS too!!!

Tip #4 – Use WinCache• Boost your speed with no code changes• Opcode Cache• File Cache

– Stores files in memory

• Relative File Path Cache– Helpful for shared or NFS storage

• Session Cache – Enable in php.ini

• User Data Cache– Store Data in memory– APC interface

Tip 4.5 If !(User Cache)• MySQL Reverse-Lookup Bug• FastCGI Bug?

– Follow me on Twitter for updates

• Use mysql_pconnect()– Can cause issues using temp tables

• [mysqld] section of my.ini– Add skip-name-resolve

• Use 127.0.0.1 in code

Tip #5 – Config Proc Recycling• Don’t allow native PHP to do it.

• Allow FastCGI to manage PHP process recycling on IIS.

• Set instanceMaxRequests <= to PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS

• Default is 10K requests

Tip #6 –Per-Site PHP Config• Only for PHP 5.3• Configure IIS to have unique PHP config

for each site on server.– Eg. Photo upload site, vs long running scripts

• Php.ini file website overrides– Insert at the end of php.ini– [PATH=C:/inetpub/website1.com/]

max_execution_time = 300 – [PATH=C:/inetpub/website2.com/]

upload_max_filesize = 12M

Tip #7 – Use IIS Output Cache• Use for Semi-Dynamic Content

– Product pages, etc.

• User Mode Caching– Cached in IIS7 Worker Process

• Authentication and Authorization• varyByHeaders attribute • varyByQuerystring attribute

• Kernel Mode Caching– Cached in HTTP.SYS, a kernel mode driver– Much faster but lacks features that must

execute in Worker Process

Tip #8 – Fine Tuning Tips

• Set Default Document (index.php)• Remove unused services & modules• Minimize Logging• Use HTTP Keep-Alives• Use HTTP Compression

– Static & Dynamic

DEMO

More Information

• http://php.iis.net• http://web.ms/php• http://windows.php.net

• Source Code and WCAT tool:• http://

dl.dropbox.com/u/23010264/PHP_Perf_Win-IIS.zip

Thank You

Questions?