This document discusses using Varnish as a reverse proxy and caching solution for websites built with TYPO3. It provides an overview of Varnish, how to install and configure it, benchmarks showing significant speed improvements when using Varnish cache, and tips for tuning and purging the cache. The presentation encourages using Varnish to accelerate websites and discusses tools for monitoring and debugging Varnish performance.

1. Make your
website fly
using Varnish
Fabrizio Branca
T3DD12

2. Fabrizio Branca
System Developer
AOE media
Wiesbaden
TYPO3 & Magento
Twitter: @fbrnc
Blog: http://www.fabrizio-branca.de

3. You?!
• Who has any experience with Varnish?
• Who has a production site using Varnish?
• Who has played around with Varnish?
• Who has experience with any other
reverse proxy solution?

4. 1m visitors in 24h
5000 concurrent users

5. Secret ingredient:
Varnish
http://www.flickr.com/photos/judybaxter/8155091/

6. Reverse proxy caching
Request
Browser TYPO3
(Apache + PHP + Mysql)
Response

7. Reverse proxy caching
Browser Varnish TYPO3
(Apache + PHP + Mysql)

8. Reverse proxy caching
Browser Nginx Varnish TYPO3
(Apache + PHP + Mysql)
- SSL termination
- (Compression)

9. Reverse proxy caching
Browser Nginx Varnish TYPO3
(Apache + PHP + Mysql)

10. Varnish
HTTP Caching Load Failover
Accelerator Reverse Proxy Balancer system
„Varnish makes websites fly“

11. Varnish
• Created by Poul-Henning Kamp
• Varnish Configuration Language (VCL)
– DSL, will be translated into C code and compiled
• Varnish uses thread and memory
management of the operation system
• Additional tools: varnishtop, varnishlog,…
• Online-Documentation:
http://www.varnish-cache.org/docs/2.1/

12. Stability

13. Efficiency

14. CPU load

15. Speed

16. Installation
• In Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install varnish
sudo vi /etc/default/varnish
START=yes
sudo /etc/init.d varnish start
• Will be started automatically on boot
• Listens to port 6081 by default
• Uses 127.0.0.1:8080 as a backend by default
• /etc/varnish/default.vcl

17. Setup
Amazon ELB
Load F5
Balancer Varnish
Varnish Varnish
TYPO3 frontends TYPO3 backend

18. Nginx, Varnish, Apache setup

19. Request Lifecycle (simplified)
Complete workflow: http://www.varnish-cache.org/trac/wiki/VCLExampleDefault

20. Pitfalls
• Vary: User-Agent
(also implicitly set e.g. SetEnvIf)

21. Tools: Varnishhist

22. Restart / Reload
• Restart: Flushes complete cache
• Reload: Reads VCL without flushing cache

23. 855,78
Pages/Second
Benchmarks
3,45 10,72
Pages/Second
Pages/Second
TYPO3 TYPO3 TYPO3
without cache with cache with Varnish

24. Sending correct headers
• config.sendCacheHeaders = 1
• The conditions for allowing client caching are:
– page was cached
– No *_INT or *_EXT objects were on the page (eg.
USER_INT)
– No frontend user is logged in
– No backend user is logged in
• If these conditions are met, the headers sent are:
– Last-Modified [SYS_LASTCHANGED of page id]
– Expires [expire time of page cache]
– Etag [md5 of content]
– Cache-Control: max-age: [seconds til expiretime]
– Pragma: public

25. EXT:cacheinfo
• http://forge.typo3.org/projects/show/extens
ion-cacheinfo

26. Purging
• http://forge.typo3.org/projects/show/extens
ion-purge
• Configuration in VCL
• Access protect
• Purge using Shift+Reload

27. Punching Holes…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/3053981107/lightbox/

28. Punching holes
Cookie /
ESI AJAX Client
storage

29. Tuning
• Different lifetimes for clients and Varnish
• Cache status codes > 400
• Redirects
• Protect the backend!

30. Further reading
• Varnish (inkl. Dokumentation)
http://www.varnish-cache.org
• Poul-Henning Kamp at T3CON10
http://vimeo.com/16676188
• http://forge.typo3.org/projects/show/extension-
moc_varnish
• http://www.fabrizio-branca.de/varnish.html
• http://www.fabrizio-branca.de
• https://github.com/fbrnc

31. Questions?
Mail: fabrizio.branca@aoemedia.de
Twitter: @fbrnc
Blog: http://www.fabrizio-branca.de