Performance tuning PHP on IBMi

Performance Tuning PHP on IBM i

Mike Pavlak Alan Seiden
Solution Consultant Strategic Business Systems

Watch the recorded webinar: http://bit.ly/A4NjYM

© All rights reserved. Zend Technologies, Inc.

Agenda

• What affects performance
• Zend Server configuration
• Review hardware architecture
• Explore Web specific opportunities
• Where to get additional help
• Wrap up
• Q&A

2 © All rights reserved. Zend Technologies, Inc.

Performance is in the eye of the beholder…
Perception is reality
Many pieces to the performance puzzle

Rarely a single silver bullet

Performance tuning is a journey, not a destination

Learn as you go

Commercial websites look great…
• And can be great motivators for change
PHP is often accused but rarely convicted


Major contributors to performance issues

• Additive workload
• Transitional workload
• Organic growth
• Network infrastructure
• Entropy
• A piece of advice…
When you see these coming…GET IN FRONT OF THEM
• Or get run over!

4 Insert->Header & Footer © All rights reserved. Zend Technologies, Inc.

Speed = money
• Google’s experiment
Google Search lists 10 results per page

They tested pages of 30 results
• Traffic and revenue dropped by 20%
• Why?
– 10 results took .4 seconds to generate
– 30 results took .9 seconds
• A ½ second delay caused a 20% drop in traffic
Source:
http://glinden.blogspot.com/2006/11/marissa
-mayer-at-web-20.html

Performance Tuning PHP on IBM i | 5 © All rights reserved. Zend Technologies, Inc.

Speed = competitiveness

• Search engine ranking
Since early 2010, Google’s search algorithm has included speed

Faster sites rank higher, all else being equal

• Consumers lose patience with slow sites
With many choices, users give up on sites that drag

Patience has decreased since the 1990s

• Slower sites often waste bandwidth and CPU
Costly infrastructure driven by performance mistakes


How do we improve performance

• Subject of this webinar
Doing what you are doing now!

• From the softer side
Communication with other teams is essential
• While it is encouraged to bang you head against the wall…
• Do not suffer in silence, reach out for help
Education
• If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!
Services
• There are folks who may know more than you. Hire them.



www.zend.com

Looking at Zend Server Administration


Zend Server for IBM i 5.6

• Zend Server is Home Base
• Configuration options abound
• We will look at
FastCGI settings

Logs

Extensions


Fast CGI

• Mechanism for communicating between Apache and PHP
• Built in with 10 server jobs at the time of installation
• This should conform to concurrent processes
• Watch this as more workload is migrated to web


Fast CGI
• Changing this
is something that should be considered

But not taken lightly (system resources, etc.)

• File to edit:
/www/zendsvr/conf/fastcgi.conf

SetEnv="PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=10"

• But don’t forget…
StartProcesses = “2” * PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN = 8 is 16 total worker jobs

http://www.youngiprofessionals.com/wiki/FastCGI

http://www.systeminetwork.com/article/other-
languages/fastcgi-boosts-php-performance-on-ibm-i-66195


PHP Logs

• IFS performance, minimize read/writes
Alan will discuss more

But what about the logs

• Consider the event monitor
• Read the logs
• Reduce the messages
• Clip the log
/usr/local/zendsvr/var/log/php.log


Rename the log
• Zend Server will create more!
 REN OBJ('/usr/local/zendsvr/var/log/php.log') NEWOBJ(phplog20120306.txt)


Extensions
• PHP travels with a posse
70+ extensions

Many are used every day

But if not used, may be turned off…

Default,
• Zend Server for IBM i shipped with DB2 on and SQL Server off
• Look at the Zend Server admin interface
– Server setup  Extensions
– Like a light switch


IBM i administration

• PTF’s
Current cumulative & group for HTTP

• Memory pools
Isolate memory from other attacks

• Workload partitioning
With i6.1 & i7.1 can protect processor without LPAR

• Understanding demands on the systems
If the boss doesn’t believe you, have your BP back you up!

Performance Monitor tools

3rd party


WRKSYSSTS – The first place to go!!!



www.zend.com

Tools


Firebug add-on graphs performance

• Firebug
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/firebug/

Even better with FirePHP and Page Speed



www.zend.com

Use Compression


Compression reduces file size
• Called gzip or mod_deflate (the same for our purposes)

• Compresses, speeds up html, javascript, css, any text
• Add two lines (OK, two long lines) to httpd.conf Apache config
 LoadModule deflate_module
/QSYS.LIB/QHTTPSVR.LIB/QZSRCORE.SRVPGM
 AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-php
application/json text/css application/x-javascript
application/javascript text/html


Netflix saw improvement with gzip/deflate

• Saw 13-25% performance improvement
• Cut outbound traffic in half
That saves money for a busy site such as Netflix

• Details of Netflix improvement:
http://www.slideshare.net/billwscott/improving-netflix-
performance-experience
• It really works!
• Tutorial on my blog:
http://www.alanseiden.com/2010/08/13/maximize-zend-
server-performance-with-apache-compression/



www.zend.com

Reduce HTTP Requests


Requests cause “blocking” in browser

• Browsers typically limit themselves to 2 parallel requests to
a given server
• File requests stack up, blocked by prev. requests
•

• Above, even “not modified” files caused blocking
• Solution: reduce number of images or improve
caching via “Expires” headers
 http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_expires.html


More ways to reduce “blocking”

• If many .js or .css files are used:
Combine them into fewer files

Move contents of smaller .js or .css files inline to your pages,
eliminating those external files
Page Speed tool will help you decide



www.zend.com

Ajax: friend or foe?


AJAX=Asynchronous Javascript And XML

• AJAX updates parts of a page without reloading the whole
page
• Not always XML. These days, JSON too
• Requests and file sizes are generally small
• Meant to bring SPEED to the web

• Potential problems if overused


AJAX mistake #1
• Too much of a good thing
Requiring several AJAX requests to complete before the page
itself can load fully
Too many HTTP requests at once
I’ve seen a situation where 4 AJAX requests were embedded in a
page load
• The AJAX doesn’t even start till the page loads
• Causes “blocking” as the requests pile up, waiting for the previous
ones to complete
Solution: when page first loads, embed AJAX content right in the
page
• Re-use logic on the server side when building page
• Subsequent updates can be done with AJAX


AJAX mistake #2

• Duplicate requests
Might go unnoticed with javascript library tools (Dojo, jQuery...)

Happens more than you would expect! Common, actually


AJAX mistake #3
• Dynamically generating static content (don’t do that)
• Solutions:
Change to static files

Cache URLs (e.g. with Zend Data Cache if using PHP, or Apache caching)
See example below, before and after caching



www.zend.com

Keep-alive


Keep HTTP connections alive
• “Keep-alive” setting in Apache (or any web server)

• The HTTP job will stay open, waiting for you
Perfect when downloading many images, css, js files

• Configurable by number of seconds to keep connection open,
number of files to be downloaded
KeepAlive On

KeepAliveTimeout 15

See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/core.html#keepalive

• Don’t overdo it—you are locking out other users from that HTTP
job while it’s dedicated to you

Connecting takes time

• Clues that Keepalive is off
“Connection: close”, “Connecting”

• Example bottom right: 3.6 seconds “Connecting” (longer
than average but it really happened)


What you see when Keep-alive is on

• Firebug’s “Net” tab shows “Connection: Keep-Alive”, and,
here, timeout=300 seconds (5 minutes)

• Zero seconds to
connect
• Keep-alive is working!



www.zend.com

Persistent DB Connections


Persistence = connection pool

• On IBM i, job initialization is relatively slow
Gives us good things—auditing, logging, security

Solution: a pool of pre-initialized jobs

• Pre-started DB2 jobs save time
Generally run in subsystem QSYSWRK, job name QSQSRVR

These prestart jobs can be configured with CHGPJE command

• In PHP, persistent connections reuse initialized jobs
db2_pconnect()

Dramatic speed boost

Use db2_pconnect() to connect persistently
• resource db2_pconnect ( string $database , string
$username , string $password [, array $options ] )

• Persistent is much faster than non-persistent
db2_pconnect can reuse connections, reducing the time needed
to connect (after the first time) to almost zero
• How db2_pconnect() reuses connections
Connections defined by database, username, and password

Tries to reuse an existing connection matching these 3 params

db2_close() on a persistent connection does nothing

db2_pclose() forces the conn to close


db2_pconnect() example with library list
$database = 'MYDB';
$user = 'MYUSER';
$password = 'MYPASS';

// set library list (works the same for connect or pconnect)
$options = array('i5_naming' => DB2_I5_NAMING_ON,
'i5_libl' => 'MYLIB1 MYLIB2');
$conn = db2_pconnect($database, $user, $password, $options);

if ($conn) {
echo "Connection succeeded.";
} else {
echo "Connection failed.";
}
// MYTABLE will be found, if in library MYLIB1 or MYLIB2
$stmt=db2_exec($conn,"SELECT * FROM MYTABLE");


Rules for using persistence
• Because connections are shared when defined with an
identical database, user, and password, please:
Avoid unpredictable results by also specifying the same $options
for these connections
Promote sharing of jobs by minimizing the number of user profiles
that you connect with
• Each user profile creates a new set of database jobs
• Each set of jobs consumes system resources

• More information:
“DB2 and PHP Best Practices on IBM i” at
http://alanseiden.com/presentations


New open source PHP IBM i toolkit
• Ships with Zend Server 5.6+
PTFs and hotfixes on download page
Many improvements since first release

• Information and updates:
Young i Professionals site
• http://youngiprofessionals.com/wiki/XMLSERVICE
Zend Forum for Q&A and tips
• http://forums.zend.com/viewtopic.php?f=113&t=41648
• “PHP on IBM i”->”Zend Server for IBM i”->”New Toolkit”

• Efficient: use single DB2 connection for SQL and Toolkit
http://forums.zend.com/viewtopic.php?f=113&t=46688
Persistent connection is the fastest


www.zend.com

Wrap it up


Help!

• I’ve got PHP applications and not sure what to do?
• Do your homework
Read, learn, explore

Talk in forums (Zend.com and midrange.com)

• Zend Services
Application Audit
• Up to 50,000 lines of code
• Review on site or off (knowledge transfer!)
• Report summary & remediation available


Zend Performance Audit
 Comprehensive Methodology
 Detailed evaluation of your application and environment
 Detailed analysis of performance patterns and behaviors
 Provide report and improvements recommendations
 Proven Success
 Delivered to numerous Global 1000 companies
 Accelerated performance across industries
 Methodologies applied to hundreds of applications
 Delivered by the PHP Company Experts
 Unparalleled experience in PHP and Zend Server
 Methodology developed by the architects of PHP
 Utilizing Zend standard benchmarks

42 Zend Professional Services © All rights reserved. Zend Technologies, Inc.

Zend Server features (Full version)

• Event Monitor
Become aware of issues before your users call

• Code Tracing
Black box flight recorder for PHP scripts

• Caching
Op-code (Alan discussed & available with CE)

Data (Also available with CE)

Page

• Job Queue
SBMJOB for PHP!!!


Webcasts

• April 12 – Stored Procedures Part II (RPG, etc.)
• May 2 – Additional Functions of DB2 with PHP on IBM i

Your thoughts???


Events where you’ll find Zend…
• User groups
WMCPA (Lake Geneva, WI) Mar 20-22 (Mike & Alan)
• http://wmcpa.org/
NEUGC (Boston, MA) April 2-4
• http://neugc.org/

Alan:
March 29: COMMON webcast: more performance tips
http://www.common.org/index.php/webcasts/upcoming-webcasts.html

April 5: live online event with System i Network
New PHP Toolkit for IBM i
http://www.systeminetwork.com/events/upcoming-events

In New York City? I host the NYC Zend Framework Meetup
http://www.meetup.com/ZendFramework-NYCmetro/

Events where you’ll find Zend…(cont.)
• Major venues
RPG & DB2 Summit (Ft. Worth, TX) Mar 25-28
• http://www.systemideveloper.com/Summit/conferences.html

COMMON Annual Meeting and Expo (Anaheim, CA) May 6-9
• http://www.common.org/index.php/annualmeeting.html

COMMON Fall Conference (Columbus, OH) Sep 24-26
• http://www.common.org/index.php/fall-conference-and-expo.html


Contact | Get tips
Alan Seiden Strategic Business Systems, Inc,
201-327-9400 17 S. Franklin Tpk
aseiden@sbsusa.com Ramsey, NJ, 07446

http://alanseiden.com Twitter: @alanseiden

Free PHP/i tips by email:
http://alanseiden.com/tips


Q&A
mike.p@zend.com

aseiden@sbsusa.com
Watch the recorded webinar: http://bit.ly/A4NjYM


Performance tuning PHP on IBMi

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