figures/resources on content via apache SSI vs. database-driven (perl DBI)

[grant stevens <gr...@l-eet.com>]

all-

Perhaps I am making a mistaken assumption, but just in case I wanted to 
support my assumptions with some real data.

Can anyone point me to some script resources, or maybe just the results of 
their own experience on the performance of SSIs in apache vs. converting a 
site to a database-driven scenario.

My assumption is, of course, that if the requirements are simple, go with 
the simplest solution.  Basically, I broke the site up into includes 
executed via SSI.

My question would be, is there any drastic improvement (CPU, memory, 
download time, server processes, whatever)  that would be gained by 
switching to some kind of mod_perl templating system?

These are all static pages.

I think all I'm asking about is a performance comparison for a  site 
comprised of  95% static content between Apache SSI and a mod_perl 
db/template system.

thanks-
grant stevens
http://l-eet.com

PS.  RTFM answers are fine as long as the particular FM is specified. :)

Re: figures/resources on content via apache SSI vs. database-driven (perl DBI)

[Perrin Harkins <pe...@elem.com>]

grant stevens wrote:

> I think all I'm asking about is a performance comparison for a  site 
> comprised of  95% static content between Apache SSI and a mod_perl 
> db/template system.


Well, mod_include (SSI) is the best choice if it meets your needs.  A 
modern OS will cache your include files in RAM and the whole thing will 
be very fast.  Yes, some perl templating systems cache content in memory 
and might manage to squeeze out some pages slightly faster, but you will 
pay for that with hugely increased memory consumption which reduces the 
number of requests you can handle in parallel.  In the end, throughput 
from a server running mod_include will probably be significantly higher.

Apache::SSI is about the same speed as mod_include (on apache 1.x) but 
uses much more memory.  If you are just serving static files, stick with 
mod_include.

The real reason people use templating systems beyond SSI is that they 
require more power and flexibility.  At the point where you start 
needing to do things with dynamic content, you should probably kiss SSI 
goodbye.

By the way, SSI (or something very close to it) is pretty much the only 
way to go if you have thousands of unique static files.  A system like 
Mason or Template Toolkit that caches the files in memory would quickly 
blow up in that situation, and you would end up needing to work around 
it by keeping most of the pages on disk and loading them at request 
time, just like SSI.

- Perrin

RE: figures/resources on content via apache SSI vs. database-driven (perl DBI)

[Ben Mathews <bm...@wilcoxassoc.com>]

Template Toolkit is what I am familiar with and while I don't have any
numbers, I would think the caching that it provides for you would win
out over processing the page every request.  Once the page has been
created, it shouldn't need any more processing until it is changed.

Look at Apache::Template and Template

Mason provides caching also.

Ben


-----Original Message-----
From: grant stevens [mailto:grant@l-eet.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 5:34 PM
To: modperl@perl.apache.org
Subject: figures/resources on content via apache SSI vs. database-driven
(perl DBI)

all-

Perhaps I am making a mistaken assumption, but just in case I wanted to 
support my assumptions with some real data.

Can anyone point me to some script resources, or maybe just the results
of 
their own experience on the performance of SSIs in apache vs. converting
a 
site to a database-driven scenario.

My assumption is, of course, that if the requirements are simple, go
with 
the simplest solution.  Basically, I broke the site up into includes 
executed via SSI.

My question would be, is there any drastic improvement (CPU, memory, 
download time, server processes, whatever)  that would be gained by 
switching to some kind of mod_perl templating system?

These are all static pages.

I think all I'm asking about is a performance comparison for a  site 
comprised of  95% static content between Apache SSI and a mod_perl 
db/template system.

thanks-
grant stevens
http://l-eet.com

PS.  RTFM answers are fine as long as the particular FM is specified. :)