1. NWCLUG 04/06/2010 Jared Moore L A M P

2. Agenda
All about LAMP
How to get it
L, A, M, P
No LAMP?
Discussion

3. What is LAMP?
Application platform: OS, web server, database and scripting language
Linux, Apache, MySQL and Perl/PHP/Python
Term coined in German magazine c't in 1998
Term popularized by O'Reilly
Technology stack was in use before the term, e.g. Slashdot

4. Overview
PHP, Python, Perl
(App Scripts)
MySQL
Apache
Linux
Internet

5. Why use LAMP? Free Easy of entry Everyone else is
Digg, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Slashdot, etc.
Find out who else
time wget -S -O /dev/null

6. What runs on LAMP? Content Management Systems
Movable Type, Drupal, Joomla, Wordpres, MediaWiki
Frameworks
Django, CakePHP, Symfony
Other
Gallery, Coppermine, phpMyAdmin, SquirrelMail

7. How to get a LAMP server Server from scratch
Select web server or LAMP server package depending on your distro
Existing server
Source
Distro specific binaries
Google for specific installation instructions
Prebuilt Appliances
rpath.org, turnkeylinux.org,

8. L is for Linux, duh!

9. A is for Apache

10. Apache Project officially stared in 1995
“A patchy server” -> “Apache”
Most widely used web server % March according to Netcraft
Modular design
Abundant documentation
Current stable version

11. MPM Multi-Processing Modules prefork or worker, OS specific MPM
Responsible for binding to network ports on the machine, accepting requests, and dispatching children to handle the requests
Only one can be running at a time
Default is prefork

12. prefork Each request is handled by a separate process
A configurable number of processes are preforked leaving spares around
Incoming requests always have a handler, as long as the max has not been reached
Most common MPM for PHP on VPS or dedicated
Configuration is important
Too low and users complain
Too high and server swaps

13. prefork configuration
Parameters
StartServers 5
MinSpareServers 5
MaxSpareServers 10
MaxClients
MaxRequestsPerChild 0

14. worker Multi-process multi-threaded
Each request is handled by a thread
More requests are served using less resources
worker and mod_php do not mix. Need worker and FastCGI

15. worker configuration Parameters StartServers 2 MaxClients 150
MinSpareThreads 25
MaxSpareThreads 75
ThreadsPerChild 25
MaxRequestsPerChild 0

16. Apache modules Have specific functions
Static (compiled in) or shared (pluggable)
Disabled/enabled as needed.

17. Module examples mod_rewrite Manipulate URLs mod_ssl
Provides SSL v2/v3 and TLS v1 support
mod_alias
Provides for mapping parts of the host filesystem in the document tree and for URL redirection
mod_deflate
Compress content before it is delivered to the client

18. M is for MySQL

19. MySQL Relational database Easy to use and administer
Small and powerful
Upgrades easily because data format remains the same
Current version is
Now owned by Oracle. DUN-DUN-DUN!
MySQL founders have forked other projects
MariaDB, Drizzle

20. MySQL engines MyISAM InnoDB Non-transactional engine Lightweight Fast
Table level locking
Bad for high traffic sites
Indexes and data in separate files
InnoDB
Transactional engine
Row level locking
Index and data stored in same file
More resource intensive

21. P is for PHP, Perl, Python

22. Scripting languages Interpreted, not compiled Easy to develop
Easy to deploy
CGI, Inline, FastCGI
Dynamic typing
Rich libraries
HTTP, file I/O, databases, string, math, etc.

23. Interpreter Modes CGI Oldest method of running dynamic content
Workflow:
Request comes in
Web server forks a new process
New process executes an interpreter (e.g. Perl)
A script is executed by interpreter, parameters passed
Result is passed back
Terminate the process
Inline (modules)
Interpreter inside the Apache process
mod_php, mod_perl, mode_python

24. Interpreter Modes (Cont.)
FastCGI
Similar to CGI
Does not fork pre request
Uses a socket to communicate with an existing process that holds the interpreter
Apache runs with fewer dynamic processes
mod_fastcgi or mod_fcgid

25. PHP Most widely used language on the web
Designed specifically for web development
Many modes
mod_php
Easiest way of running PHP
PHP is inside each and every Apache process
Can be more memory intensive
CGI
FastCGI
Current version is 5.3.2

26. Python
mod_python
FastCGI
Framework
Django
washingtonpost.com

27. Perl Used to be popular as web site language mod_perl
Still in use by some sites (Slashdot)

28. Alternatives
No LAMP

29. Operating Systems
WAMP, yes the W means Windows
*BSD
Mac OS/X

30. Web servers Lighttpd Fast and less memory footprint Nginx
Young project
Good for serving static content

31. Databases PostgreSQL Still community driven
Transactional features by default
Not as easy as MySQL

32. Languages
Ruby
Ruby on Rails

33. Resources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAMP_(software_bundle)

34. The End
Questions? Comments!