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To: webmaster@perl.apache.org From: "Tyler 'Crackerjack' MacDonald" <tyler@yi.org> Subject: how to make mod_perl actually run fast Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 13:45:05 -0800 [mod_perl list: i'm not a subscriber jsyk so if you wish to reply to me, reply to me directly and not the list] This past weekend, my webserver suffered a severe failure when i decided to upgrade my code to mod_perl instead of fastCGI. This performance problem resulted in me going to the mod_perl performance tuning guide. Reading this guide made me think "damn, that's inconvienent for a bunch of VHosts". Thinking this made me write the following artice: http://www.weedns.com/apache_tuning/fast_mod_perl_mini_howto.html It uses wildcard DNS and some other goodies to extend the mod_perl-server-via-proxy-from-static-server setup that is already partially documented in the performance tuning and general guides on the perl.apache.org website. It's relevant to apache 1.3 because I got an even bigger headache trying to make modperl2+apache2 run. Feel free to link to it or integrate it's ideas into your own documentation if you wish. Cheers, Tyler === To: "Tyler 'Crackerjack' MacDonald" <tyler@yi.org> From: Roger Pettett <rmp@sanger.ac.uk> Subject: Re: how to make mod_perl actually run fast Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 09:49:10 +0000 (GMT) My configuration had a similar problem - a bunch of virtualhosts (~25 or so) some of which use modperl, running on a handful of 2-node tightly-coupled clusters with the content/scripts sitting on NFS. DNS for the virtualhost addresses points to a frontend cluster. I set up extra aliases for my backend virtualhost addresses in the /etc/hosts files on both the frontend and the backend servers. dns: www.glurp.com -> my.frontend.address /etc/hosts: glurp1 -> my.backend1.address /etc/hosts: glurp2 -> my.backend2.address ...for all services The virtualhosts on the backend respond to the aliases in the /etc/hosts file and serve dynamic content. frontend writes /perl/ and /cgi-bin/ requests to a random-selection RewriteMap of the backend servers for that service. also at the frontend I took mod_proxy_add_forward.c and added another header. My module now adds X-Forwarded-For: remote.address # remote address of client X-Host: www.glurp.com # real virtualhost address The reason I used the X-Host header was to avoid missing-trailing-slash requests coming back to the client with the wrong (/etc/hosts aliased) virtualhost in the Location: response header. I have a mod_perl handler at the backend which intercepts 301 Moved Permanently requests which are usually thrown by missing-trailing-slash requests and rewrites the Location response header using the X-Host request header. I don't know whether there's a nice way to do this but it works relatively well. === To: Roger Pettett <rmp@sanger.ac.uk> From: lesmikesell@attbi.com Subject: Re: how to make mod_perl actually run fast Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2001 14:15:22 +0000 >My module now adds > X-Forwarded-For: remote.address # remote address of client > X-Host: www.glurp.com # real virtualhost address > > The reason I used the X-Host header was to avoid > missing-trailing-slash requests coming back to the client with the wrong > (/etc/hosts aliased) virtualhost in the Location: response header. Note that Apache will fix the redirects for you if you use the ProxyPassReverse directive regardless of whether the proxy action was done from a ProxyPass or a RewriteRule. You just need a ProxyPassReverse entry to match any of the targets that the rewrite can generate. === To: lesmikesell@attbi.com From: Roger Pettett <rmp@sanger.ac.uk> Subject: Re: how to make mod_perl actually run fast Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 14:27:55 +0000 (GMT) I never managed to get ProxyPass & ProxyPassReverse to work properly with farms of machines at the backend. :P === To: "Tyler 'Crackerjack' MacDonald" <tyler@yi.org> From: "Perrin Harkins" <perrin@elem.com> Subject: Re: how to make mod_perl actually run fast Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 11:51:40 -0500 > It uses wildcard DNS and some other goodies to extend the > mod_perl-server-via-proxy-from-static-server setup Why not just use name-based virtual hosts for the backend and avoid all the monkeying with DNS? ===