1. How to host a
SilverStripe website.
The right way.

2. This presentation
● About Twisted Bytes
● Basic Server Setup
● Silverstripe specifics
● From small to big

3. About us
● Hosting company without servers
● Helping developers
● Deliver your product → end-users
● Based in Enschede, The
Netherlands
● Twitter: @twistedbytes_nl
● http://www.twistedbytes.nl

4. About me
● Developer → sysadmin
● Linux, run & maintain servers
● Know software dev & sys admin
● Twitter: @DerkGortemaker

5. Basic
Webserver:
Apache or
Nginx
Database:
MySQL/MariaDB or
PostgreSQL or
MongoDB/NoSQL
Runtime:
PHP
Access /
Deployment
Monitoring Backup
server
setup

6. Basic
server
setup
● Apache or Nginx
○ .htaccess is useful
● Time spent in
webserver vs application
Webserver:
Apache or Nginx

7. Basic
server
setup
● MariaDB is good for most jobs
○ default in most distributions by
now.
○ Easy to make an master-master
● Everything else needs a good reason
Database: MySQL/MariaDB or
PostgreSQL or MongoDB/NoSQL

8. Basic
server
setup
● Use PHP with php-fpm
○ Apache event MPM
● Enable opcode cache
● PHP 7 around the corner (end 2015)
○ silverstripe is not compatible :-(
Runtime: PHP

9. Basic
server
setup
● HHVM could be a good choice
○ Busy site
○ 1 maybe 2 sites on a server
○ many cpu cores
● http://www.twistedbytes.
nl/blog/php-vs-hhvm-silverstripe-
english/
● Runs Silverstripe
● PHP 7 is easier to maintain, HHVM
Runtime: HHVM

10. Basic
server
setup
● FTP/SFTP
● SSH
○ mariaDB ssh tunnel
● GIT
○ capistrano
○ deploy.php
Access / Deployment

11. Basic
server
setup
● As a service or “Home Grown”
● Local and Remote
● Metrics and Alerting
● Log Files
Monitoring (sucks)

12. Basic
server
setup
● What is the worst that can happen?
● How to restore?
● Can you reach the backup?
● Can you rebuild the server?
● What to Backup?
Backup

13. Silverstripe specifics
● php-fpm + opcache
● Give MariaDB memory
● Keep some memory free for Linux cache
● More memory = more FS and database
caching
● More cores = more speed for busy sites
● Busy site: HHVM is an option

14. Silverstripe specifics
● silverstripe-cache
○ Files or MemCache
● What’s up with this:
○ Rewrite file every request, with lock?
○ zend_cache---
i18nZend_Translate_RailsYaml_Options
○ zend_cache---internal-metadatas---
i18nZend_Translate_RailsYaml_Options

15. Silverstripe specifics
assets
● Scaling problem.
● Needs shared filesystem, none found yet
○ Glusterfs works, but slow
○ NFS works, but single point
○ Big NFS clusters are “expensive”
● Solved by silverstripe-cloudassets?
○ assets to S3 (or Swift)

16. Growth: small → big (1)
● What are you trying to solve?
○ Faster site
○ Survive a failure

17. Growth: small → big (2)
● What’s slowing down the site/page
○ Database
○ Profile code
■ Waiting
● Remote api
● Disk IO
● Xdebug + (win|k)cachegrind
● NewRelic / Blackfire

18. Growth: small → big (3)
● Simplest option = make the server bigger
● Split servers or add servers?
○ Split → multiple failure points
○ Add servers → more capacity
● At every level add failover

19. Growth: small → big (4)
● Caching
○ silverstripe-cache
■ silverstripe-staticpublishqueue
○ Varnish
○ Cloudflare / CDN

20. We like to hear from you!
Want to learn about a better way to do hosting? Or
have some ideas about what you are missing?
Please contact us to exchange ideas.
info@twistedbytes.nl