What "PHP" option to use? Fast-CGI, CGI, Mod-PHP or SuPHP.

[edge]

I'm just about ready to install WordPress on my ISPconfig 3 production server for a client, and now I need to know what PHP option is the best to use.
I've tested WordPress on a test server with Fast-CGI, and it looked like all was working fine.

As it's for a client (who has no clue on what he is doing), I was wondering if Fast-CGI is the best option to select?
I've got the following options: Fast-CGI, CGI, Mod-PHP or SuPHP

[till]

The php option depends on traffic that you expect for the site and if the site e.g. uploads or creates images or files on the server.

mod_php:

- fast
- runs not under admin user of the site
- well suited for low and high traffic sites, but not for cms systems like joomla.

suphp:

- not so fast
- script runs under web admin
- secure
- well suited for low traffic sites

fastcgi

- fast
- script runs under web admin
- secure
- well suited for high traffic sites

so basicalley the decision is, if a site is low traffic, use suphp. suphp spawns a new cgi process for every page request, but it does not use resources when no pages are requested. On the opposite fastcgi, the php processes are running permanently even if no page is requested, this is faster and fine for a high traffic site but for a small homepage with 100 pageviews per hour you would waste resources.

[edge]

Interesting information!

Thank you

[edge]

Looks like WordPress does work fine with "mod_php", and as it's not running under admin I will stick with this sertting!

Once again thank you for the info.

[Ovidiu]

ok, very good info so far, but i.e. wordpress, has a built in update module which means the user or the group that the web server runs as needs write access to vertain paths.

which one would I chose now? shall I chose a version where apache runs as the webadmin? I guess that is right? if it is a low traffic site, I shall chose suPhp but do I also have to check the box for suexec or isn't that needed?

[till]

ok, very good info so far, but i.e. wordpress, has a built in update module which means the user or the group that the web server runs as needs write access to vertain paths.

The wordpress update module can also connect to the site with ftp, so all of them will work.

But you should use either suphp or fastcgi with suexec.

[Ovidiu]

well, if its a site for a client, its easier if he doesn't have to enter any ftp credentials, it jsut confuses people.

besides, if I edit a website, in the optiosn tab I see: Linux User web1
Linux Group client1 - so apache would run when using suPhp as web1 right? but what if the user uploads stuff with his ftp userlogin? which seems to differ from the linux user? I mean the files will be owned by the ftp user then :-(

[Ovidiu]

ok, now I was looking for a php accelerator and usually I use eaccelerator.
BUT I foudn this statement on their website:

eAccelerator only works with mod_php or php in fastcgi mode. It can't be used in cgi or cli because eAccelerator needs to set up shared memory, and this can only be done when all php instances that need to access it are forks of the first process.

If I read that right, I can only use eaccelerator with mod_php and fastcgi with suexec but NOT with suPhp, right?

Is any of the other accelerators, i.e. x-cache able to work with all three?

[till]

Is any of the other accelerators, i.e. x-cache able to work with all three?

No, there is no accelerator that works for cgi based setups like suphp.

[Ovidiu]

k, thx. found out x-cache in the lenny repository is actually up to date, so I installed that one, changed the config a bit and all seems good...