Transforming legacy PHP applications with Symfony2 and Varnish
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The document discusses the transformation of legacy applications at careerswales.com using Symfony2 and Varnish, aimed at improving performance and reducing costs. Key strategies included developing new application frameworks, implementing single sign-on, and optimizing caching mechanisms, resulting in a significant increase in speed. The migration yielded a 560% improvement in response times, enhancing user experience with no functional downtime.
Transforming legacy PHP applications with Symfony2 and Varnish
- 1. Transforming legacy applications with Symfony2 and Varnish
- 4. JULY 2012 10 CONCURRENT USERS ~20 SECONDS AVERAGE HOMEPAGE -> LOGIN -> PERSONAL DETAILS
- 5. Why so slow? PHP4 SQL Server and Windows Server Sub-optimal caching strategy
- 7. “Rewriting the code from scratch ... (is) the single worst strategic mistake a software company can make.” - Joel Spolsky
- 8. “... the quick fix is like quicksand: The clarity of code goes down and confusion is harvested in its place.” - Venkat Subramaniam and Andy Hunt
- 9. The Plan Reduce cost, improve performance Develop new application framework Gradual deployment to careerswales.com API to access shared data Single sign on and shared sessions
- 10. Legacy CMS New Applications CAREERSWALES.COM
- 12. Why Symfony2? Used successfully in other projects Excellent 3rd party libraries Flexible and easy to extend Facilitates best practice
- 13. PART 1: THE CMS
- 14. Catalyst CMS Cutting edge stack - PHP 5.4, Nginx, FPM Reusable code through Symfony2 bundles Inspired by Symfony2 CMF and Sonata Fraction of the code to maintain
- 16. PART 2: THE API
- 17. Take it to the bridge Bridges MSSQL & MySQL databases Acts as a facade Linux + MSSQL = PAIN Caching with Symfony2 and Doctrine
- 19. PART 3: SINGLE SIGN ON
- 20. Single sign on Single authentication system for all applications Uses Central Authentication Service (CAS) protocol BeSimpleSsoAuthBundle does heavy lifting Custom modifications via DI container
- 21. PART 4: VARNISH
- 22. Varnish Frontend proxy or HTTP accelerator Sits between client and server Shares cached responses between clients Can perform load balancing and routing
- 24. Without Varnish Client Client Client TTL = 1 DAY TTL = 1 DAY TTL = 1 DAY HTTP://WWW.CAREERSWALES.COM/EN/
- 26. With Varnish Client Client Client Varnish TTL = 1 DAY TTL = 1 DAY TTL = 1 DAY TTL = 1 DAY HTTP://WWW.CAREERSWALES.COM/EN/
- 27. With Varnish Client Client Client Varnish Client Client Client Client HTTP://WWW.CAREERSWALES.COM/EN/
- 28. With Varnish Client Client Client Varnish Client Client Client Client HTTP://WWW.CAREERSWALES.COM/EN/
- 29. ESI Caching Edge Side Includes Identifies blocks of HTML which are dynamic Blocks are independent of the main response Blocks can be cached and expired individually Blocks can be identified as public (cacheable) or private (not cacheable)
- 30. TTL = 5 MINS TTL = 5 DAYS
- 32. Carousel Block Caching Straightforward caching No personalisation, same for all users
- 33. Carousel Block Caching public function indexAction() { $response = new Response(); // cache for 1 minute $response->setMaxAge(60); $response->setPublic(); return $this->render( 'BoxUK:Default:index.html.twig', array(), $response ); }
- 34. Login Button Caching More complex: two different states Can use varying to store two different caches Use cookies to provide information to Varnish BUT don’t want to vary on cookie
- 35. Login Button Caching public function indexAction() { $response = new Response(); // cache for 1 minute $response->setMaxAge(60); $response->setPublic(); $response->setVary('Logged-In'); return $this->render( 'BoxUK:Default:index.html.twig', array(), $response ); }
- 36. Login Button Caching public function onKernelResponse( FilterResponseEvent $event ) { $response = $event->getResponse(); $loggedIn = $this->context->isGranted( 'IS_AUTHENTICATED_FULLY' ) ? 'true' : 'false'; $response ->headers ->set('Logged-In', $loggedIn); }
- 37. Login Button Caching public function onKernelResponse( FilterResponseEvent $event ) { $response = $event->getResponse(); $cookie = new Cookie('Logged-In', $loggedIn, ...); $response ->headers ->setCookie($cookie); }
- 38. Login Button Caching if (req.http.Cookie ~ 'Logged-In=true') { set req.http.Logged-In = 'true'; } Varnish cache keys are hashed on URL (host, path, etc) and vary data Symfony takes care of the way out On the way in, we have to fake the header to reproduce the hash
- 39. Routing Varnish directs requests to given ‘backends’ Load balancing, e.g. round robin More complex logic via VCL (Varnish Configuration Language) No EC2 load balancers!
- 41. Defining backends backend legacy_applications { .host = "10.1.2.1"; .port = "80"; } backend new_applications { .host = "10.1.2.2"; .port = "80"; }
- 42. Routing by regex sub vcl_recv { ! if (req.url ~ "^(.*)www.careerswales.com/old-request-format") { ! set req.backend = legacy_applications; ! return(pipe); ! } ! if (req.url ~ "^(.*)www.careerswales.com/new-request-format") { ! set req.backend = new_applications; ! return(pipe); ! } }
- 44. JULY 2012 10 CONCURRENT USERS ~20 SECONDS AVERAGE HOMEPAGE -> LOGIN -> PERSONAL DETAILS
- 45. JULY 2013 10 CONCURRENT USERS ~4 SECONDS AVERAGE HOMEPAGE -> LOGIN -> PERSONAL DETAILS
- 46. Conclusions Observable speed increase of 560%No loss of functionality or downtime No loss of functionality or downtime Substantially less ‘hardware’ More complex environment