«
»

PHP runs up to 130% faster on Windows Server 2008

Saturday, April 12th, 2008
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

From recent tests conducted with StreetDirectory.com shows that PHP executes a lot faster on Windows Server 2008 now with their built-in CGI support. In fact it runs 130% faster then any other server operating system out there.

The built-in support of FastCGI enables PHP applications to run efficiently on Windows Server 2008, with significant performance boosts. As can be seen in the graph from the case study:

The Windows Server 2008 installation was a core installation with no performance tweaks, making it a out-of-the-box solution for all server administrators.

As you can note with the graph above that the 4000 users point, Windows Server 2008 becomes slower then Linux. Dennis from Microsoft says many server administrators would evaluate the performance by looking at where 75% of the maximum hits is located.

If we take the same approach from Dennis here, then most server administrators would be scaling out to another machine at about 45,000 sustained hits, whereas on the Linux box it would be around 30,000 sustained hits.

So what does this mean? Less servers for the administrators to maintain, less hardware to have problems with and less network/software issues to deal with. It will also be cheaper and more effective to scale out when needed or for 'just in case' scenarios.

I haven't been brain washed by Microsoft as a Microsoft Partner but I do seriously believe that Microsoft has made dramatic changes to both Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista. Look out Linux!

Related Articles
* PHP runs up to 130% faster on Windows Server 2008
* Minty White - PHP runs up to 130% faster on Windows Server 2008
* Windows Server 2008: PHP runs up to 130% faster
* As Windows Server 2008 RTMs, Customers and Partners Adopting with Help of New Tools, Training

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Microsoft, PHP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

21 Responses to “PHP runs up to 130% faster on Windows Server 2008”

[...] blogs have referenced (see this post) studies and test have reported that PHP runs 130% faster on Windows Server 2008. [...]
Windows for most is an easier system to admin over Linux. Linux really dosent have the full support that you can receive from some dedicated companies. Take a fully manged server from Server Intellect. They can install WS2008 and manage the server for you. Most Linux host give the box and say fix it yourself. Who wants that kind of support?
[...] a recent post "PHP runs up to 130% faster on Windows Server 2008" there was a lot of discussion between Microsoft and some dedicated Linux fans about the report that [...]
I would first like to admit that when it comes to servers I don't know a lot about them, and this post was simply some findings that were passed onto me from a dedicated Windows Server user and some research I did into the topic. His statement (just given) for using Windows over Linux is that it is easier to setup, he knows that Linux could run faster in most circumstances.

Thanks for the discussion here from both sides of the fence, really cleared up the report for myself and many readers that stumbled across this post.
Then, the problem I have is with the title of this article which is pretty much sensationalism. particularly the first paragraph (stern look at Dallas) ;)

I saw the post by Rich, who I assumed was someone reputable at Microsoft or the company in question - and he said that the linux setup was running CGI.

streetdirectory.com is running apache + BSD at this stage, so I'm interested to see where the linux server was running, and why they took the time to switch to BSD instead of windows. it could be a reverse proxy, but that still doesn't say much for their confidence.

I must apologise for believing blindly that the linux setup was running cgi (who is Rich anyway? :) ) but there are still too many unknowns for this developer to take it seriously. Material like this is for pointed haired middle managers though :P
@Jorke Its all well and good to say: "What needs to be understood as that the results are for a specific case that the customer experienced" - but the article shouldn't be titled "PHP runs up to 130% faster on Windows Server 2008", because clearly this isn't correct.
pretty sure I said that... "What needs to be understood as that the results are for a specific case that the customer experienced"....

I don't have any "inside" information on the study, just going by what was stated in the article, which like you said is a piece of marketing material. My interpretation is that the code that was running on linux was moved across on to windows and they preferred the results they received from windows.

not sure if they tested with cgi/fastcgi/mod_php but would guess it would at least have to me fastcgi/mod_php to have the level of performance they are seeing.
Let me explain myself a bit more, I was going to post this to Jorke's post, but the conversation is happening here anyway.. :)

I understand this document is a marketing play, so we can't expect it to be totally accurate. The title of the piece is misleading, given that FastCGI is already known to perform a lot better than CGI.

On linux + apache most people run mod_php which is faster than both CGI and FastCGI, in that configuration.

The final point is that people should choose the configuration best suited to their load pattern, there is no _single_ way to do things, much to microsoft's chagrin I'm sure. :)
A more interesting comparison would be IIS 7 with FastCGI and lighttpd also running FastCGI.

As it is, the benchmarks are comparing "Fast technique on windows vs. worst practice on other operating systems".
I'd actually like to see the complete vase study as that pdf has no information about setups. Are we able to see the original docs as these results are EXTREMELY hard to believe. And if they indeed tested linux with CGI and not fastCGI or mod_php, then the results are straight up wrong . :)
When I say "you" I mean the testers, not you Dallas, sorry :)
Are you serious? How can a huge company actually publish results like that? Thats like comparing the acceleration of a car against the acceleration of a motorbike.

Do Microsoft actually realise that CGI != FastCGI?

I'm actually gobsmacked that Microsoft has openly published this crap.

Lets just say that I'm happy I don't use ANYTHING Microsoft. ahh, life without marketing bs is bliss.
So you benchmarked FastCGI on windows against CGI on linux?

I guess that pretty much sums up the evaluation. That comparison brought on a few chuckles in the office here.
Jorke, is there any light you can give about the Linux configuration? I'll be making a table of stats shortly (within this post) detailing the facts we've received about both systems.
Fair questions, I've just posted some in depth info on this on my blog - feel free to comment/ask questions directly.

http://blogs.technet.com/jorke/archive/2008/04/14/huge-performance-increases-with-php-on-windows-2008.aspx
[...] of our local developers Dallas J Clark (Brisbane local) blogged about an article that shows PHP with a 130% performance increase on Windows Server 2008 - and of course there have been a few comments asking about the metrics of the comparison etc. So [...]
As outlined in the report, Windows Server 2008 is using FastCGI for their system.
The previous Linux System was running Apache. A report on how Apache works on Windows is not given.
The Linux server was running CGI. I hope that answers a few of your questions :)
Waiting for a reply back from Jorkeo (Microsoft Hosting Evangelist)
David, I'm looking into your 'unknowns' at the moment. Trying to get answers from the person that wrote the article.
Hey Dallas, was it CGI or FastCGI? there's a big difference there. Also, what configuration was the lix server in? there is no "default" config really... so it depends heavily what php was running on (was it apache in which case how does apache on windws perform?, or lighttpd?)

was the linux server running prethreaded, or preforked? or thread pool? was it running cgi, or fastcgi or as a module?

a lot of unknowns!
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptFrom recent tests conducted with StreetDirectory.com shows that PHP executes a lot faster on Windows Server 2008 now with their built-in CGI support. In fact it runs 130% faster then any other server operating system out there. … [...]

Leave a Reply