# FastCGI performance question **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 4, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastcgi-performance-question/52072 "2005-12-04T19:43:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/frocco)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastcgi-performance-question/52072/1 "2005-12-04T19:43:18Z")
Hello, I’m coming from a PHP, ASP and JSP environment and learning Rails. I just purchased the “Agile Web D. with Rails” and find it excellent. Here’s my question: I always thought that CGI apps were slow and memory hogs as compared to servlets that have one copy in memory. Is this true when hosting rails apps on Windows? I hope not as I am really impressed with Rails web development. Thanks Frank ---
**Author:** ![frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/frocco)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastcgi-performance-question/52072/2 "2005-12-04T19:47:23Z")
On 5/12/2005, at 7:40 AM, Frank R. wrote: > Here’s my question: > I always thought that CGI apps were slow and memory hogs as > compared to servlets that have one copy in memory. > > Is this true when hosting rails apps on Windows? Rails uses FastCGI which behaves similar to a servlet - it loads one copy and keeps it loaded, and therefore is quite fast. – Phillip H. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/frocco)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastcgi-performance-question/52072/3 "2005-12-04T19:59:33Z")
Hi, Frank, coming from java-webapp-development myself I’m petty impressed until now, what rails has achieved performance wise. Here is a pointer to some research done by Justin Gehtland: [http://weblog.rubyonrails.com/articles/2005/04/04/justin-160-gehtland-is-back-with-numbers-to-back-it-up](http://weblog.rubyonrails.com/articles/2005/04/04/justin-160-gehtland-is-back-with-numbers-to-back-it-up) . You might also be interested in switchtower: [Peak Obsession](http://manuals.rubyonrails.com/read/book/17) which you’ll want to use if scaling is an issue. Regards Jan Pril. ---
**Author:** ![frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/frocco)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 8:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastcgi-performance-question/52072/4 "2005-12-04T20:03:37Z")
On Sun, 4 Dec 2005, Frank R. wrote: > Hello, > > I’m coming from a PHP, ASP and JSP environment and learning Rails. I just > purchased the “Agile Web D. with Rails” and find it excellent. > > Here’s my question: I always thought that CGI apps were slow and memory hogs > as compared to servlets that have one copy in memory. a fastcgi process **is** a servlet. rails runs in two modes cgi **and** fastcgi. cgi is slow and for development only, fastcgi is a servlet type model which is several orders of magnitude faster that plain cgi. google fastcgi. cheers. -a ---
**Author:** ![frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/frocco)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastcgi-performance-question/52072/5 "2005-12-05T02:45:58Z")
Thanks for the links. I appreciate everybody’s help. Frank ----- Original Message ----- From: “Jan P.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) To: [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2005 1:55 PM Subject: Re: [Rails] FastCGI performance question ---
**Author:** ![frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/frocco)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastcgi-performance-question/52072/6 "2005-12-04T20:07:40Z")
Thanks you, I did not realize that. Frank ----- Original Message ----- From: [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) To: [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2005 2:02 PM Subject: Re: [Rails] FastCGI performance question > > as compared to servlets that have one copy in memory. > > – > > =============================================================================== > > | ara [dot] t [dot] howard [at] noaa [dot] gov > > | all happiness comes from the desire for others to be happy. all misery > > | comes from the desire for oneself to be happy. > > | – bodhicaryavatara > > =============================================================================== * * * > * * * > > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) * * * ---
**Author:** ![frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/frocco)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 9:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastcgi-performance-question/52072/7 "2005-12-06T09:42:43Z")
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > > as compared to servlets that have one copy in memory. > > a fastcgi process **is** a servlet. rails runs in two modes cgi **and** > fastcgi. cgi is slow and for development only, fastcgi is a servlet type > model which is several orders of magnitude faster that plain cgi. I _strongly_ suggest not to use CGI at all, not even for development mode. For several reasons: 1. The execution model of CGI is very different from FCGI. 2. Developing in an environment that doesn’t resemble your production environment as closely as possible is bound to hide potential production environment problems. 3. It will slow down your development process considerably. – stefan [http://railsexpress.de/blog](http://railsexpress.de/blog) ---
**Author:** ![frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/frocco)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastcgi-performance-question/52072/8 "2005-12-06T22:11:37Z")
I’m curious about this…does lighttpd running through script/server use FCGI or not? skaes wrote: > I _strongly_ suggest not to use CGI at all, not even for development > mode. For several reasons: > > 1. The execution model of CGI is very different from FCGI. > 2. Developing in an environment that doesn’t resemble your production > environment as closely as possible is bound to hide potential production > environment problems. > 3. It will slow down your development process considerably. > > – stefan > > [http://railsexpress.de/blog](http://railsexpress.de/blog) ---
**Author:** ![frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@frocco](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/frocco)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 3:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastcgi-performance-question/52072/9 "2005-12-07T03:28:12Z")
lighttpd does use fcgi, but as it was stated earlier, it runs completly differently then regular cgi. Webrick uses its very own method I’m assuming, becuse its all in rails.