PHP is a first class citizen on IIS. A lot has been done in order to make sure that PHP can work well and fast on Windows. We will start by installing PHP with PHP Manager and discussing all the options including what thread safe vs non thread safe and VC6 vs VC9 means. Next we'll take a look at how to optimize the FastCGI IIS extension that Microsoft and Zend developed to provide a secure and performant environment for PHP applications. The last part of this webcast will show how to build PHP with Profile Guided Optimizations (PGO), a technique that can provide a significant performance boost in a wide range of applications.

1. PHP + FastCGI
Performance Optimizations
Alessandro Pilotti
Twitter: @alexpilotti
MVP ASP.NET / IIS
MCSD, MCAD, MCSE, MCDBA, MCT
Red Hat Certified Engineer

2. PHP on IIS
 FastCGI
 Best available option
 ISAPI
 The way to go before FastCGI
 Low reliability due to reentrance problems
 DLL loaded at W3SVC instance level
 Security issues
 CGI (not FastCGI)
 Awful performance

3. How to get PHP on Windows
 Binaries
 http://windows.php.NET/download/
 Visual Studio C++ CRT DLL: VC6 or VC9?
 Apache: VC6
 IIS: VC9
 Thread safe or not thread safe?
 Thread safe for ISAPI
 Non Thread Safe for CGI/FastCGI
 Massive performance improvement!
 x86 vs x64
 Do you need > 4GB of process space?

4. WebPI
 Microsoft Web Platform Installer (WebPI) is a free tool that
simplifies deployment of web solutions
 IIS features and extensions
 WinCache, PHP Drivers for SQL Server, PHP Manager
 Frameworks
 .NET, PHP, etc
 Web applications
 Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, DotNetNuke, Orchard, etc
 Database
 MS SQL Server Express, MySQL, etc
 WebMatrix
 Both PHP 5.2 and 5.3 can be easily deployed via WebPI
 Local cache:
 "%localappdata%Microsoftweb platform installer"

5. Deploy PHP via WebPI

6. Deploy PHP via WebPI

7. Deploy PHP via WebPI

8. Deploy PHP via WebPI

9. Compiling PHP
 If you want:
 A PHP release available in sources
 A development build for testing purposes
 What do you need:
 Sources, e.g.: http://php.NET/downloads.php
 Subversion client (e.g. TortoiseSVN)
 Instructions:
 https://wiki.php.net/internals/windows/stepbystepbuild
 PHP build extras
 http://windows.php.net/downloads/php-sdk/
 Deps and binaries: bison.exe, flex.exe, etc. and additional include and libs
 Visual Studio 2008 or 2010
 The Express edition (free) is enough

10. Compiling PHP
 Unpack the downloaded sources, e.g in c:php-src
 Use e.g 7-zip to inflate tar.gz or tar.bz
 Or via SVN:
 svn checkout https://svn.php.NET/repository/php/php-src/branches/PHP_5_4
php-src-5.4
 Unpack the Win32 build extras in the same dir
 Start a Visual Studio 2010 command prompt
 cd php-src
 set PATH=%PATH%;win32buildbin
 set INCLUDE=%INCLUDE%;win32buildinclude
 set LIB=%LIB%;win32buildlib
 buildconf
 configure –disable-zts (and required extensions)
 nmake
 Copy binaries (php-cgi.exe and php5.dll) to your PHP directory

11. Profile Guided Optimizations
(PGO)
 Feature of the MS C/C++ compiler (VS Professional or Premium)
 Patch to PHP build environment available here:
 http://www.ksingla.NET/wp-
content/uploads/2010/05/pgo_build.patch.txt
 Steps
1. compile PHP with instrumentation enabled --enable-pgi
2. collect training data (.pgc files)
3. compile PHP with PGO –with-pgo
 Expected performance improvement: 10-17%
 More details
 http://www.ksingla.NET/2010/05/php-pgo-build-for-maximum-
performance-on-windows/

12. Demo

13. CGI and FastCGI
 CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is the oldest way used to
generate dynamic content on a web server
 A separate process is spawned for each request (!)
 Request input and response output are handled via standard
input / output
 Massive overhead due to process handling by the OS
 FastCGI is a variation
 A separate process is spawned but persists among multiple
requests
 Request input and response output are handled via sockets or
named pipes
 Processes can be restarted independently
 Good performance
 Very popular in the Apache environment (mod_fastcgid), for
PHP, Perl, Ruby, etc

14. IIS FastCGI 1.5
 CGI is slow: every request generates a process instance!
 FastCGI employs the same process for many requests
 Supported on IIS 7.x and IIS 6.0 (the latter via fcgiext.dll
ISAPI)
 Written in collaboration with Zend (PHP) but is generic
 In IIS 7.x: Enable CGI among the IIS role services
 Note: Install Hotfix KB980363 on IIS 7.0 to get version 1.5!

15. FastCGI Setup

16. IIS FastCGI - Versions
Feature 5.1/6.0 7.0 7.5
Monitoring file Yes Yes Yes
changes
Real-Time max Inst. Yes Yes Yes
tuning
STDERR support Yes Yes Yes
SIGTERM support Yes Yes Yes
Env. variable Yes Yes Yes
_FCGI_X_PIPE_
Proc. Pool per Yes Yes Yes
application
UTF-8 variable Yes Yes No
encoding
IIS CPU Limit support No Yes Yes

17. FastCGI - PHP
 Install PHP 5.2 or 5.3
 During setup choose FastCGI
 As an alternative, deploy via WebPI
 WP3P.exe
 Loads iisfcgi.dll
 Executes php-cgi.exe
 Config: PHP.INI
 E.g.: fastcgi.impersonate = 1

18. FastCGI - Settings

19. Handler Mappings

20. PHP.INI FastCGI Settings
 fastcgi.impersonate
 supports the ability to impersonate security tokens of the
calling client
 Default: 1
 fastcgi.logging
 Turns on SAPI logging when using FastCGI
 Default: 1

21. Web.config - FastCGI
<configuration>
…
<system.webServer>
…
<handlers>
<clear />
<add name="PHP53_via_FastCGI" path="*.php"
verb="GET,HEAD,POST"
modules="FastCgiModule"
scriptProcessor="C:Program Files (x86)PHPv5.3php-
cgi.exe"
resourceType="Either" />
</handlers>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

22. PHP Manager
 A dedicated tool to support multiple PHP installations
 Features:
 Easy management of the PHP version used by a web app
 Easy management of the PHP parameters
 No direct editing of PHP.INI needed
 Easy management of PHP Extensions
 Best practices
 Quick inspections via phpinfo()
 Easy registration of new PHP installations
 Deployable via WebPI or standalone setup

23. PHP Manager

24. Set PHP Limits

25. PHP Error Reporting

26. Manage PHP.INI Settings

27. phpinfo() Output