Ok...here's how fast PHP can be

Hi all, Every so often we see a thread discussing various optimization issues and questions on how much traffic PHP can realistically handle, given its interpretive scripting nature. We've recently had some exposure to higher traffic loads on our web site, and thought we'd pass along this juicy tidbit: Hardware platform Pentium 200 Mhz with 32 Meg Ram Runs Linux Runs Apache 1.3.9 with openssl and mod_php Runs PostGreSQL db In other words, a very modest platform. Load scenario: - Serve out 1 page and 7 graphic images each second, with each page being about 20K, and each image about 4 K, with each PHP page using "includes" to reference a header, navbar, and a footer from separate files Bandwidth used in this situation was approximately 440Kbit. And CPU usage .... 12% average over an hour (yes, 88% IDLE!!!) In other words, this tiny box loaded to the hilt (and engineered to not swap, btw), was was capable of serving out 100,000 pages per day and consuming very little CPU. So, extrapolating: put in an Intel P800 with plenty of memory, and saturate the box to 50% load, and you're talkinb about 1 million page views/day. So for those who are hesitating based on performance numbers whether low-end systems can effectively deliver traffic, hopefully this will help out a bit... Cheers, Thomas -- ------------------------------------------------------------ Thomas Reinke Tel: (905) 331-2260 Director of Technology Fax: (905) 331-2504 E-Soft Inc. http://www.e-softinc.com Publishers of SecuritySpace http://www.securityspace.com