nginx

(Referred from http://drupal.org/node/1255892)

I have been working on two development servers to try out a concept:

Server 1.
varnish -> apache > drupal, and

Server 2
nginx -> apache > drupal, with
nginx -> (jpg, txt).

I have read all good things about running nginx with no modules to server Static Content (images, text files, etc) and it seems to work very well on server 2.

Both development servers are working very well. What I would now like to try is to combine the benefits of both but I do not know which is the preferred setup?

Tools like ab or siege are inadequate for testing sites served by Nginx (or Lighttpd). They both use threads instead of multiple processes. ab is based on the Apache Portable Runtime, hence it uses the same type of request handling at the OS level that Apache uses.

It's been announced that Nginx creator Igor Sysoev is setting up a company for furthering Nginx development and support.

It's good news for us. There's no more bandwith for the lame excuses some people still make in Drupal world for not using Nginx, and instead go for the status quo. Even in some projects that purport to be "advanced" and "hooked" on performance.

Cfr http://keen.posterous.com/your-nginx-configuration-is-probably-wrong

This post describes how in certain situations using if (-f $request_filename) {} and if (!-e $request_filename) {} can lead to unwanted behavior. A proposed solution is to use try_files $uri /index.php?$args; instead.

Is this something that applies to Drupal sites as well? Is anyone experiences these issues?

(moved from http://groups.drupal.org/node/148319)

our current web stack is an all IPv4, DIY implementation of,

    nginx
        multiple listeners on IPv4:80, IPv4:443
        proxypass to varnish-cache on 127.0.0.1:9000
      |
      |
    varnish-cache
        listener on 127.0.0.1:9000
        filter/pass to 'faux-CDN' on Apache2
            'img' -> 127.0.0.1:12003
            'css' -> 127.0.0.1:12002
            'js'  -> 127.0.0.1:12001
            '...' -> 127.0.0.1:12000
      |
      |
    apache2/mod_php,mod_deflate +
    Pressflow6/memcached(cache_inc/session_inc/lock_inc)
        listeners/vhosts on 127.0.0.1:1200{0,1,2,3}

our current web stack is an all IPv4, DIY implementation of,

	nginx
		multiple listeners on IPv4:80, IPv4:443
		proxypass to varnish-cache on 127.0.0.1:9000
	  |
	  |
	varnish-cache
		listener on 127.0.0.1:9000
		filter/pass to 'faux-CDN' on Apache2
			'img' -> 127.0.0.1:12003
			'css' -> 127.0.0.1:12002
			'js'  -> 127.0.0.1:12001
			'...' -> 127.0.0.1:12000
	  |
	  |
	apache2/mod_php,mod_deflate +
	Pressflow6/memcached(cache_inc/session_inc/lock_inc)
		listeners/vhosts on 127.0.0.1:1200{0,1,2,3}

all works as planned.

From previous posting to this group the Special Olympics of Northern California and Nevada decided to try Webfaction for several reasons, but two of there were

a) that I was told it had memcache that we could use and also was
b) told that the nginx server would help with serving static files.

Well neither seems possible, unless someone can help. All help is appreciated by myself and the Special Olympics.

I wrote a blog post about getting Drupal to work on an automated DotCloud instance. The main pain point I ran into was configuring the rewrite rules for nginx, so maybe this group can help.

DotCloud allows an nginx.conf file in a project root, which the server picks up when it reloads. I based mine on perusio's drupal-with-nginx project, specifically the drupal.conf and drupal7.conf files. (I tried it with both D6 and D7 and had the same issue.)

A nice way to add performance to your drupal site is by adding Nginx in front of your web server to act as a reverse proxy. I have summarized my configuration which puts Nginx in front of an existing Apache / drupal site. Not only can it serve images and other static files, but I have made the tweaks to the configuration file to serve up the boost cached files directly from the Nginx front end.

My testing shows it to be very, very quick. The best thing, is that it can be tested on a production server with no impact.

Hello,
Problem: Drupal hosted on a VPS and files(images/css/pdfs etc) served from amazon S3

I'm aware of CDN module, but instead of rewrite urls I would like to instruct nginx to serve amazon s3 files transparently. Is it possible ?