Comparative analysis of three Web servers (Apache, Lighttpd,nginx)

Original address: http://www.bbtang.info/linux/web/821.html

A. Software introduction (Apache lighttpd nginx)

1. lighttpd

lighttpd is a feature with very low memory overhead, low CPU usage, good performance, and rich modules. LIGHTTPD is one of the best in many opensource lightweight Web servers. Support FastCGI, CGI, Auth, output compression (outputs compress), URL rewriting, alias and other important functions.

LIGHTTPD uses fastcgi to run PHP, which uses very few PHP processes to respond to a large amount of concurrency.

The advantages of fastcgi are:

· In terms of stability, fastcgi is a separate process pool to run CGI, a single process is dead, the system can easily discard, and then reassign new processes to run the logic.

· From the security perspective, the fastcgi and the host server is completely independent, fastcgi how down will not bring the server down,

· In terms of performance, fastcgi separates the processing of the dynamic logic from the server, and the heavy-duty IO processing is left to the host server, so that the host server can be a single-minded Io, and for a normal dynamic Web page, there may be only a small number of logical processes, A large number of images such as static IO processing do not require the involvement of logic programs (Note 1)

· In terms of extensibility, fastcgi is a neutral technical standard that can be fully supported in any language written processing program (Php,java,python ...).

2.Apache

Apache is the world's number one Web server, according to Netcraft (www.netsraft.co.uk) survey, more than 50% of the world's Web servers are using Apache.

In April 1995, the earliest Apache (0.6.2 version) was released by Apache Group. The Apache group is a non-profit organization that operates entirely over the internet, and it determines what should be included in the standard release of the Apache Web server. Allow anyone to modify the concealment, provide new features and transplant it to a new platform, and other work. When the new code is submitted to Apache group, the group reviews its content, tests it, and, if it is satisfied, it is integrated into the main version of Apache.

Features of Apache:

1) can be run on almost all computer platforms.

2) support for the latest http/1.1 protocol

3) Simple and powerful file-based configuration (httpd.conf).

4) Support for Universal Gateway Interface (CGI)

5) Support Virtual host.

6) Support HTTP authentication.

7) Integrated Perl.

8) Integrated Proxy Server

9) You can monitor the status of the server through a Web browser, and you can customize the log.

10) Support server-side include command (SSI).

11) Support Secure Socket Layer (SSL).

12) have the ability to track the user's conversational process.

13) Support FastCGI

14) Support Java Servlets

3.nginx

Nginx is a very lightweight HTTP server written by the Russians, Nginx, which is pronounced "engine X", is a high-performance HTTP and reverse proxy server, but also a IMAP/POP3/SMTP proxy server. Nginx was developed by the Russian Igor Sysoev for the second rambler.ru site of Russian traffic.

Nginx is written in an event-driven manner, so it has very good performance and is also a very efficient reverse proxy, load balancing. It has the performance of matching lighttpd, and there is no lighttpd memory leak problem, and lighttpd Mod_proxy has some problems and has not been updated for a long time. However, Nginx does not support CGI operations because it reduces some of the procedural vulnerabilities that can be caused. Therefore, you must use the FastCGI method to execute the PHP program.

Nginx as an HTTP server, has the following basic features:

Handles static files, index files, and automatic indexing; Open file descriptor buffering.

No caching of reverse proxy acceleration, simple load balancing and fault tolerance.

FastCGI, simple load balancing and fault tolerance.

Modular structure. Includes gzipping, byte ranges, chunked responses, and Ssi-filter filter. If more than one SSI exists on a single page by a fastcgi or other proxy server, this processing can run in parallel without waiting for each other.

Nginx is specially developed for performance optimization, and performance is the most important consideration, and the implementation is very focused on efficiency. It supports the kernel poll model, withstands high loads, and reports that it supports up to 50,000 concurrent connections.

Nginx has very high stability. Other HTTP servers, when encountering spikes in access, or when someone maliciously initiates a slow connection, are likely to cause the server to run out of physical memory frequently, lose response, and only restart the server. For example, once Apache has reached more than 200 processes, the Web response is significantly slower. Nginx adopts the phased resource allocation technology, which makes its CPU and memory occupancy rate very low. Nginx official said to maintain 10,000 inactive connections, it only accounted for 2.5M of memory, so a DOS-like attack on Nginx is basically useless. In terms of stability, Nginx is better than lighthttpd.

Nginx supports hot deployment. Its start-up is particularly easy, and it can be run almost 24x7, even if it runs for several months without restarting. You will also be able to upgrade the software version in the event of uninterrupted service.

two . 3 species WEB Comparison of servers:

Server	Apache	Nginx	Lighttpd
Proxy Agent	Very good	Very good	So so
Rewriter	Good	Very good	So so
Fcgi	Not good	Good	Very good
Hot deployment	Not supported	Support	Not supported
System pressure Comparison	Very big	Very small	Relatively small
Stability	Good	Very good	Not good
Security	Good	So so	So so
Technical support	Very good	Rarely	So so
Static file Processing	So so	Very good	Good
Vhosts Virtual Host	Support	Not supported	Support
Reverse Proxy	So so	Very good	So so
Session Sticky	Support	Not supported	Not supported

Note: In relatively large sites, the cost savings of the server is undoubtedly objective. Some small sites tend to have few servers, and if you use a traditional Web server like Apache, it seems to be able to survive. But there are obvious drawbacks: when Apache handles bursts of traffic (such as crawlers or Digg effects), it's easy to overload, so it's best to use Nginx.

Suggested Scenarios:

Apache background server (mainly handling PHP and some feature requests such as: Chinese URL)

Nginx Front End server (use it to take advantage of less system resources to handle static page mass requests)

LIGHTTPD Image Server

Overall, as the Nginx function is perfected, he will become the mainstream of Web server in the future.

three . Performance Test :

The response time of 3 software to dynamic pages and static page requests and concurrency will be tested separately

L static page Sohu Home

LIGHTTPD

N/-C (ab parameter)	cpu%	Mem	Requestspersecond	Time taken for tests
100000/100	64	60	462.75	21.6
100000/200	67	60	312.07	32.4
100000/500	83	60	137.24	72.8
100000/1000 Error drops occurred	94	60	126.6	78.9

Nginx

N/-C (ab parameter)	cpu%	Mem	Requestspersecond	Time taken for tests
100000/100	34.6	140	943.66	10.597
100000/200	35.6	110	924.32	10.818
100000/500	34.3	110	912.68	10.956
100000/1000	37	160	832.59	12.106

Apache

N/-C (ab parameter)	cpu%	Mem	Requestspersecond	Time taken for tests
100000/100	40.6	170	690.72	14.47
100000/200	41.1	180	685.39	14.59
100000/500	42.3	190	633.64	15.78
100000/1000	43.1	200	547.53	18.26

Dynamic page Internal Community home

LIGHTTPD

N/-C (ab parameter)	cpu%	Mem	Requestspersecond	Time taken for tests
1000/100	50	200	33.54	29.816
1000/200	52	210	30.43	32.858
1000/500	54	230	25.79	38.76
1000/1000	62	250	24.83	40.28

Nginx

N/-C (ab parameter)	cpu%	Mem	Requestspersecond	Time taken for tests
1000/100	53.8	250	83.12	12.305
1000/200	55.8	250	74.05	13.504
1000/500	56	260	58.99	16.951
1000/1000	58	260	43.41	23.347

Apache

N/-C (ab parameter)	cpu%	Mem	Requestspersecond	Time taken for tests
100000/100	60	200	27.37	36.541
100000/200	61	220	23.82	41.981
100000/500	73	150	20.59	48.562
100000/1000	53	200	27.18	36.796

L PHPINFO function page

LIGHTTPD

N/-C (ab parameter)	cpu%	Mem	Requestspersecond	Time taken for tests
100000/100	45	20	168.06	59.504
100000/200	47	22	140.64	71.103
100000/500	49	24	52.80	189.386
100000/1000	The test test program died when the request reached 4840.

Nginx

N/-C (ab parameter)	cpu%	Mem	Requestspersecond	Time taken for tests
100000/100	70	120	143.46	69.706
100000/200	72	130	140.57	71.140
100000/500	73	150	135.87	73.601
100000/1000	77	160	132.18	75.657

APACHE appears to drop packets

N/-C (ab parameter)	cpu%	Mem	Requestspersecond	Time taken for tests
100000/100	70	180	245.73	40.694
100000/200	72	190	245.79	40.684
100000/500	75	200	241.29	41.443
100000/1000	77	220	236.74	42.239

Four. List of Web server resources for each major web site

Site name operating system Web server

1. portal site class:

Sohu LINUX Apache 1.3.37

Sina LINUX Apache 2.0.54

Thunderbolt LINUX Nginx 0.6.31

163 LINUX Apache 2.2.6

2. Search for classes

Baidu Unknown BWS 1.0

Google Linux GWS

Sougou FreeBSD Apache 2.2.4

Hao123 Linux Apache 2.2.4

4. E- Mail class

126 Linux Apache

Hotmail Win2003 Microsoft-iis 6.0

Sina email F5 big-IP Apache 2.2.8

263 Linux Apache 2.2.6

5. Blog Class

Sina Blog Linux nginx 0.5.35

Sohu Blog Linux Nginx

Thunder Blog Linux Nginx 0.6.32

Tianya blog F5 big-IP microsoft-iis/5.0

6 . Video Class

Youku Linux Apache

Potato Linux Apache

Ku6 Linux Apache

Six rooms Linux Nginx 0.6.14

Comparative analysis of three Web servers (Apache, Lighttpd,nginx)