Nginx good with many simultaneous PHP users?

Server NGINX
1

Hi all,

Got the usual LAMP setup currently, trying to decide whether to swap out
Apache and fully replace with Nginx, or to stick Nginx in front of
Apache just to serve static content and let Apache handle the PHP
stuff.

Is Nginx+PHP good with potentially many (hundreds or thousands) or
simultaneous users accessing a lightweight PHP script (does a couple of
MySQL reads and maybe a write or two)? (users all using the site
simultaneously but not necessarily that many actually accessing the PHP
script simultaneously). I’m seeing conflicting answers to this question
from online research.

Also, re: PHP specifically, looks like php-fpm has been absorbed into
latest PHP 5.4.x so I don’t need to explicitly install php-fpm - is that
correct? (I have 5.4.1 installed).

Many thanks,
Alex

Posted at Nginx Forum:

2

Is Nginx+PHP good with potentially many (hundreds or thousands) or
simultaneous users accessing a lightweight PHP script (does a couple of
MySQL reads and maybe a write or two)? (users all using the site
simultaneously but not necessarily that many actually accessing the PHP
script simultaneously). I’m seeing conflicting answers to this question
from online research.

In short yes, but to be specific - it depends.

Based on your current setup and the nature of website (distribution
between
dynamic and static content) the improvements may be (very) noticeable
especially if you’re still using the old prefers in Apache rather any of
the
threading MPMs.

The major benefits in my opinion/experience is having more control over
the
resources - first of all you spend way less for the static content
(Apache
more or less loads the php module/engine for everything).
The fpm manager can also identify/trace (log) slow running script and/or
even forcibly kill them if they exceed the given thresholds (it is
pretty
useful if all your code isn’t written by yourself) .
Your are also not stuck with figuring out what MaxClients /
MinSpareThreads
etc set to satisfy all clients/requests (incoming bursts etc) the fpm
has
adaptive spawning and also ability to notify if the configuration
settings
are too low.

While it may only still be true with the prefork case (I haven’t tested
the
latest releases/threading models since went away from Apache 5 years
ago)
the permanent fastcgi php processes give you the advantage of using
persistent connections to your backends (mysql, memcache etc) that way
speeding up the web application.

Also, re: PHP specifically, looks like php-fpm has been absorbed into
latest PHP 5.4.x so I don’t need to explicitly install php-fpm - is that
correct?

FPM has been merged into php since 5.3.3 (so quite a while ago).

Anyways if you allready have nginx in your infrastucture then plugging
in
php for it shouldn’t take too much effort. Test it for yourself.

rr