Apache + Nginx

[Havouza]

A question for all you network nerds on the forum Would it be a good idea to use a Nginx server as a reverse proxy instead of using an extrnal one? Anyone has experience?

[the.rampage.rado]

Yes, it's good. I've been running my PS on such setup.

But for now I think the best setup is litespeed+http2+php7

[Traumflug]

Some experience from a site running a forum and a wiki: Nginx is fast, mostly because of it's small memory footprint. For handling complex PHP it's not always up to the task, so it's a good idea to let it handle simple things like serving pictures, only. Such a setup isn't established by enabling a flag somewhere, it requires to edit Apache config files carefully, adding quite some complexity.

PS/30bz claims to allow loading pictures from an external media server. Never read about anybody using this, but code is there. It looks like a good, simple solution to set up such a media server using Nginx and let 30bz handle all the proxy decisions.

[roband7]

@Traumflug Could you elaborate on "For handling complex PHP it’s not always up to the task"?

I know some people advocated this some years ago, but this was often for enterprisey supercomplicated setups they hardly understood and didn't dare reconfigure, often with weird apache-specific modules thrown into the mix.

Nginx and phpfpm has also come a long way since then.

From my experience running a pure nginx+phpfpm setup for PS/TB is no problem whatsoever.

[Havouza]

What I am after is the setup of the most perfect TB host

[roband7]

I would go for: Linux (either Ubuntu or CentOS) nginx with everything served over http2 PHP 7.0 with php-fpm mariadb

Just my 2 cents...

[Traumflug]

Could you elaborate on “For handling complex PHP it’s not always up to the task”?

It's quite possible this has changed to the better in recent years. It's also possible that it works better with one web software than with another. PHP code sometimes makes assumptions which are true on an Apache server, but not on an Nginx one. Sometimes, not always.

If 30bz works fine on a pure Nginx server: great!

[Havouza]

What I was looking at was to use the nginx as front and let the Apache do the php work

[Havouza]

Then we setup a test like that and install a tb for tests

[Havouza]

Is there anyone in this forum that have tested to run TH (or PS) on a Nginx. Outcome?

[Havouza]

TB ofc. No edit button around

[roband7]

Many of us have run both PS 1.6 and TB 1.0 using nginx. It works fine. If you have more specific questions just bring them on.

[Havouza]

What does Nginx do better than Apache? Seems that you pros prefer that solution

[dynambee]

I don't claim to be a hosting expert but NGINX themselves have an interesting and overall fairly informative writeup of the history and differences between NGINX and Apache: https://www.nginx.com/blog/nginx-vs-apache-our-view/

[Havouza]

Interesting article that advocates the same that 50 others do, use both together.

[Havouza]

I have now upgraded the server and use nginx as reverse proxy in front of Apache. As soon as I have a free ip address I will test to use only nginx

But already now I feel like the rendering time has improved

[roband7]

In order to run something as simple as TB nginx needs apache about as much as a fish needs a bicycle.

[Havouza]

Yes but with so many different sites on the server I will have both options but need to free an ip to be able to have both running as pure web servers on the same machine without chnaging port numbers

[dprophitjr]

https://github.com/denverprophitjr/Linux-Administration fork it and contribute? I was going to create branches for various hardware combos unless someone has a better idea how to organize so many different mixins?

[Havouza]

@dprophitjr I have hard to understand your post

[dprophitjr]

@Havouza If someone is a linux administrator or hobbyist who understands how to configure linux servers, I have already began an open source project on github to add those configuration files. Share, collaborate and improve it. https://github.com/denverprophitjr/Linux-Administration

[dprophitjr]

@mdekker No. I did mean it. I just need to revisit it from time to time.