I know many people have had performance issues running Apache on Windows for their Moodle server, so I thought I'd post this option.
Apache Lounge provides Apache packages for Windows. Recently they released a version built with Visual Studio 2008. Using this version you should see some lower memory usage and a performance increase. From their download page:
"LoadRunner (Load Testing Software Suite) shows that there are improvements in performance using Apache built with VC 2008. That performance gain can be affected by numerous factors (use of scripting language such as Perl, PHP, Python, etc…as well as the actual scripts themselves). LoadRunner testing does show a marked improvement for Apache compiled under VC 2008 in stability under rigorous condition."
Installation Tutorial
Installation is straightforward, you just need to make sure you install the Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package.
We're currently running our Moodle 1.9+ with this version of Apache in combination with PHP 5.2.5 and MySQL 5.0.51a. Right now, we have about 190 users online and httpd.exe is using about 280 MB of memory.
I hope this helps!
In reply to Ryan Smith
Re: Windows server: Apache Lounge - Apache built on VS 2008
by Mark Hilliard -
Ryan,
Thanks so much for sharing this, I know we sure struggled trying many versions of Apache with Windows 2003 server and never got past the memory leak issues. We used the Apache Lounge as a resource and met helpful people (but found no memory leak solution at the time).
This sounds like a new serious effort and rebuild that might make apache and php run stable on Win 2003, and we will take a new look at it!!
Apache is really the best solution if you need to do multiple Moodles (via virtual hosts) using a single IP (as we need to do...) so if this is stable it's really worth a look! Thank you for this!!
Mark
MPls, MN
Thanks so much for sharing this, I know we sure struggled trying many versions of Apache with Windows 2003 server and never got past the memory leak issues. We used the Apache Lounge as a resource and met helpful people (but found no memory leak solution at the time).
This sounds like a new serious effort and rebuild that might make apache and php run stable on Win 2003, and we will take a new look at it!!
Apache is really the best solution if you need to do multiple Moodles (via virtual hosts) using a single IP (as we need to do...) so if this is stable it's really worth a look! Thank you for this!!
Mark
MPls, MN
In reply to Mark Hilliard
Re: Windows server: Apache Lounge - Apache built on VS 2008
by Chris Potter -
That's exciting! I don't know if it's the fix-all for the memory leaks, but if it has a smaller memory footprint and improved performance without negatively affecting stability, that's always a good thing.
I'll see if I can get it working without too much of a headache here. I'll have a fair test load tomorrow of chat students. We'll see how it goes.
I'm just testing this (apachelounge distribution dropped into XAMPP package), and I am not sure what to look for. I'm monitoring working set memory using process explorer (seems to be the same as task manager uses) and I'm finding that from 21MB after restart, it steadily grows. I'm now at 70MB after an hour or two, but I am using eaccelerator with SHM only and have a cache size of 43,144,640. Does the working set include the eaccelerator cache? If it does, I still seem to have gained some overhead somehow.
I need to know for comparison: at resting state, what is the biggest that the process should be if I have eacccelerator , and no leak? Anybody have some figures?
I need to know for comparison: at resting state, what is the biggest that the process should be if I have eacccelerator , and no leak? Anybody have some figures?
In reply to Matt Gibson
Re: Windows server: Apache Lounge - Apache built on VS 2008
by Barbara Lawrence -
The apachelounge website no longer seems to be available. Does anyone know of somewhere else I can get a version of Apache built on VS 2008? We have the Windows memory leak problem and I am still searching for a good combination of Apache and PHP.
In reply to Barbara Lawrence
Re: Windows server: Apache Lounge - Apache built on VS 2008
by Ryan Smith -
I'm not sure what is going on with the Apache Lounge website. Their mirror site is still up:
http://apachelounge.dj02.net/
No problems here with Apache 2.2.10, PHP 5.2.6, and MySQL 5.0.70 on Windows.
http://apachelounge.dj02.net/
No problems here with Apache 2.2.10, PHP 5.2.6, and MySQL 5.0.70 on Windows.
I just noticed that this thread is linked on the Moodle Docs Performance recommendations page.
Here is a current update.
The Apache Lounge builds of Apache are currently the required builds of Apache needed to run the latest versions of PHP (5.3.x or 5.4.x). See their note here:
http://windows.php.net/download/
The current builds of Apache 2.4.x and 2.2.x are built with Visual Studio C++ 2010 SP1, so you'll need the appropriate x86 Redistributable Package.
Right now my server is running Moodle 2.3.x on Apache 2.4.2 from Apache Lounge with PHP 5.4.5 using mod_fcgid 2.3.7 (download is available on Apache Lounge as well).