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Choosing a Webserver

September 27, 2011 // Performance, WordPress // 0 Comments

So many times, people choose to run WordPress on a traditional LAMP stack…STOP IT! Just because something is an industry standard, doesn’t mean it’s good. Yes, LAMP is a good stack sometimes, but not always. That’s the important thing to know: when to use it, and when to use another stack.

For the time being, I’m going to focus on “A” and leave L,M, and P out of this.

In LAMP, A is Apache, one of the old and most popular web server applications on the Internet. Apache is great and serves up a lot of websites all over the web, but you want see any of the top 10 websites using it. WordPress.com doesn’t even use Apache! I used Apache for a long time, but have since moved away due to performance issues. No hard feelings though! I still use it in some places!

What most people don’t know is that Apache is relatively bloated these days and doesn’t use RAM/CPU in the most efficient manner possible. It’s not Apache’s fault, it’s just the result of being in existence since 1995 (Yes, I’m implying that’s old).

I won’t go over the installation/setup (in this post) as each one is very different from the other, but here are a few alternatives to consider before going with Apache:

NGINX:

NGINX™ is an advanced Internet infrastructure software. It is a high performance web server with the lowest memory footprint and it provides complete combination of the most essential features required to build modern and efficient web infrastructure.

Today NGINX is the 2nd most popular open source web server on the Internet.

NGINX functionality includes HTTP web server, HTTP and SMTP/IMAP/POP3 reverse proxy, content caching, load balancing, compression, bandwidth policing, connection multiplexing and reuse, SSL offload and media streaming.

LIGHTTPD:

Security, speed, compliance, and flexibility — all of these describe lighttpd (pron. lighty) which is rapidly redefining efficiency of a webserver; as it is designed and optimized for high performance environments. With a small memory footprint compared to other web-servers, effective management of the cpu-load, and advanced feature set (FastCGI, SCGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and many more) lighttpd is the perfect solution for every server that is suffering load problems. And best of all it’s Open Source licensed under the revised BSD license.

Litespeed:

LiteSpeed Web Server is the leading high-performance, high-scalability web server. It is completely Apache interchangeable so LiteSpeed Web Server can quickly replace a major bottleneck in your existing web delivery platform. With its comprehensive range of features and easy-to-use web administration console, LiteSpeed Web Server can help you conquer the challenges of deploying an effective web serving architecture.

See? There are other options out there. Ironically, each one clames to be the best.

Go ahead, step out of your comfort zone and use something other than Apache this time. You can do it!

I’ll talk about what I use and why in an upcoming post…I might even go over how to install it…in fact, I will! I’ll even cover installation and configuration of Apache, NGINX, and Lighttpd…with juicy sample config files to make your hearts melt. Stay tuned for those.

Writing a WordPress Plugin

August 1, 2011 // WordPress // 0 Comments

I wrote a plugin for WordPress!

It’s one of the most challenging yet most fulfilling things I’ve done and my only real contribution to WordPress (and calling it that is a stretch!).

I’m not a developer nor do I think like one all the time. The first language I was taught was Java. I was scared of it but we managed ok and I ended up with a strong B in the class.

Recently I was doing some work with a friend and it hit me: I needed to learn a language, any language. I’m fluent in SQL and HTML (but HTML isn’t really a language; it’s markup), but that wasn’t going to help me. I picked PHP. It’s an object oriented scripting language…that, I’m sure you knew. It’s similar to Java as well as C, C++, and other OOP languages. Pieces began to click and I began writing forms with PHP and HTML. One thing led to another and I wanted to take a shot at a plugin. I picked something kind of simple. I wanted to add Open Graph Meta data to my header.

I was aware there were other plugins, but I didn’t care. I thought they were all stupidly written with bloated code that frankly didn’t make a damn bit of sense. Seriously.

Because my plugin is simply written and a simple concept, its appropriately named Simple OpenGraph.

Open Graph Goodness!

So I found a few tutorials for guidance and went at it. A few hours later, version 0.1 was done and was mostly working! It had kinks but I got it figured out.

Now, a little over a month later, it’s up to version 2.1 (I version fast) and in the WordPress plugin directory. It’s a great feeling and to know that others (600 something) are using my plugin feels even better.

I’d challenge anyone to do it whether you’ve ever developed before or not. You wont regret it.

You can see the full plugin details as well as report bugs and submit feature requests on the official page.

Good Hardware

February 18, 2011 // WordPress // 2 Comments

That's Good Hardware!

[This is Part of the Series: Making WordPress Fast]

For the majority of bloggers, hardware isn’t really a factor thanks to shared hosting. With shared hosting, you get good hardware at a relatively low cost; you just have to share it with God only knows how many other people. That’s annoying.

Some bloggers prefer total control over everything, including hardware.

Making WordPress Fast

February 18, 2011 // WordPress // 0 Comments

Pages that take forever to load aren’t fun. Diagnosing those slow pages really isn’t fun, and neither is the fact that it can greatly impact your SEO!

I’ve been fighting to make my WordPress Installations as fast as possible for several years. My goal is less than 2.5 seconds for the initial page load and then fractions of that for anything past.

That may sound absurd, but I assure you – it’s not!

I’m going to spend the next several weeks talking about 4 ways to Make WordPress Fast. Covering everything from hardware to software and everything in between.

1. Hardware

2. Software

3. Caching

4. Content Delivery Networks

C.Y.A.

November 10, 2010 // Blogging, WordPress // 0 Comments

When I was a freshmen in college, I learned a new acronym in my political science class: CYA.

Ever heard it?

It stands for “Cover Your Ass(etts)”, and it was one of the best things I heard in class that year. Other than the fact that my professor married a marine because he was hot. Anyway.

What do you do to cover your assets? Your blog, your servers?