This document discusses strategies for scaling PHP and Drupal applications. It recommends using the latest stable version of PHP and disabling unnecessary PHP extensions and modules to improve performance. It also discusses tuning PHP settings like memory limits and caches. For Drupal, it suggests scaling horizontally, focusing on sessions, files, databases and authenticated users. It provides caching, database, and profiling techniques to optimize performance when scaling Drupal applications.

1. Scaling PHP and Drupal
Handrus Nogueira
handrus@taller.net.br
@handrus
Lucas Arruda
lucas@ciandt.com
@lunascarruda

2. Handrus
Based on Florianópolis-SC / BR
Software Architect / Dev @ Taller
Web & Open-Source & Agile
~11 yrs on the road
Drupaler for ~7 yrs
Dev with Passion!

3. Lucas Arruda
Software Architect @ CI&T DCO
Open-Source enthusiast
Acquia Certified Developer
Based on Campinas-SP / Brazil
Zend Certified Engineer PHP 5.3
Drupaler for 4+ yrs
GCP Authorized Trainer & Qualified Dev.

4. The Basics

5. Use the latest PHP stable version
Source: https://blog.asmallorange.com/2013/08/php-roadmap-performance/

6. Use the latest PHP stable version
Source: https://www.lourdas.name/blog/php-53-vs-54-vs-55-speed-and-memory-usage
Source: http://php.net/manual/en/features.gc.performance-considerations.php

7. Use the latest PHP stable version
Source: http://www.lornajane.net/posts/2014/php-5-6-benchmarks
Source: http://zsuraski.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/benchmarking-phpng.html

9. Source: https://kinsta.com/blog/hhvm-vs-php-7/

10. Disable unnecessary PHP extensions and web-server modules
● PHP extensions consume memory heap
● Some badly written can cause memory leaks
● The same applies for web-server modules
● Disable if you don’t need them!
2Read: http://www.slideshare.net/jpauli/help-im-leaking-memory-in-php

11. Fine tune your php.ini!
● memory_limit
memory_get_usage() / memory_get_peak_usage()
● realpath_cache_size
realpath_cache_get()
● realpath_cache_ttl
Max execution per thread - will affect memory usage!

12. mod_php
vs.
FastCGI
vs.
PHP-FPM
Apache
vs.
Nginx
2Read: http://www.prinew.com/mod-php-vs-fastcgi-vs-php-fpm-for-web-server-scripting/

13. PHP ACCELERATORS

14. Alternative PHP Cache (APC)
Zend OPcache
XCache

15. apc.shm_size
apc.ttl
apc.num_files_hint
apc.gc_ttl
apc.max_file_size
apc.stat
APC
2Read: https://www.scalingphpbook.com/best-zend-opcache-settings-tuning-config/

17. ● Is PHP really your bottleneck?
● Same memory, less CPU
● Great for authenticated users.
● Some problems with NGINX (solvable!)
● Great resume: http://alexrayu.com/blog/drupal-hhvm

18. Scaling Drupal
Horizontally
(“Cattles, not Pets”)

19. Points of Attention
● Session
● Files
● Database
● Authenticated Users

20. Authenticated Users
- AuthCache contrib module
- Memcache
- AJAX
Database
- MySQL Read Replicas
+ AutoSlave contrib module
+ Orbital Cache Nuke (OCN)
Files
- Rsync bi-directional replication
- NFS shared mount
- Cloud-based solution (S3/GCS)
Session
- Drupal handes it beautifully
- Session is stored on Database
- Memcache to cache tables

21. Avoid database specific
queries.
Use Drupal`s built-in
Database API whenever
possible!
Avoid db_query(),
always prefer specific
functions.

22. And choose well
your database!!
● MySQL
● MariaDB
● PerconaDB
Version?!

25. How dependent of your actual
environment are you?
timezonepaths connection string
limits
timeouts
Number of triesAPI Keys

26. Caching Mechanisms

27. Redis
Specially useful for entities
Memcache
for key/value storage
URI -> HTML output, Session data
tmpfs/ramfs
for all filesystem (I/O intensive) based
caching like Boost.
Use Drupal’s
built-in
Cache API

28. Reverse proxy caching
Nginx Varnish

29. Some modules that
break reverse caching
Adaptive Image - Since it detects browser to serve
image the reverse proxy will cache the first
occurence.
Text Size - Use cookies to store user choosen size.
Recaptcha - Use cookie to store valid challenge.
Key phrases:
“Depends on cookies”
“Browser detection”

31. Drupal Queue
API

32. Helpful Modules

35. RULES!
:-D

36. https://www.drupal.org/project/httprl

37. https://www.drupal.org/project/httprl

38. Profiling is about Measuring!
XHProf

40. Q&A
ciandt.com
Presentation Deck
http://goo.gl/0cV1KT

41. THANKS
FOR
BEING
HERE!
Please evaluate this presentation!
http://goo.gl/P8ZDfc
(3 questions only)

42. @lunascarruda
drupal.org/u/larruda
lunascar@gmail.com
google.com/+LucasArruda
fb.com/lucasnarruda
linkedin.com/in/larruda
github.com/larruda
@handrus
drupal.org/u/handrus
handrus@gmail.com
google.com/+HandrusNogueira
fb.com/handrus
linkedin.com/in/handrus
github.com/handrus