[Zope] why run apache in front of zope?

[sean.upton@uniontrib.com]

Disclaimer: I've done both Squid and Apache, though I definitely fall into
the Squid camp.  Regardless, I'll agree that Squid or Apache in front of
Zope is the right way to do things.  Either can do URL rewriting; either can
have access controls; either can do caching; either can do SSL acceleration.

Apache's URL rewriting is faster (in-process), while Squid's is much more
flexible (external helper, I use pyredir:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/pyredir - which is in Python, and has simple
enough config file rules that put Apache rewrite rules to shame).

Apache has strength in support for transfer encodings (mod_gzip); Squid does
not.  The problem with transfer encoding is that it doesn't usually play
well with cached content.  It also really is only a benefit for text, since
images are usually well-compressed already.  This might be good for an
e-commerce site.

Squid has faster and more tunable caching.  This takes load off the app
servers better.

Given the performance characteristics of the above two statements, which I
believe to be true, I would make the following recommendation:  If you are
running a site with lots of cacheable content (semi-dynamic, like a news
site), use Squid.  If you are running an e-commerce site, use Apache, and
get the benefits of transfer encoding on your dynamic textual pages that are
not likely cacheable.  

Sean

-----Original Message-----
From: David Hart [mailto:dhart@atlantisblue.com.au]
Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2002 9:32 PM
To: Zope Org
Subject: Re: [Zope] why run apache in front of zope?


On servers I administer, we do virtual hosting for many kinds of 
websites on the same server: filesystem+CGI, filesystem+PHP4, and Zope.

Apache provides a convenient and standard way to do virtual hosting. 
It's easy to front-end Zope sites with mod_proxy, plus I can enable gzip 
compression on any kind of site with mod_gzip and enable SSL encryption 
any kind of site with mod_ssl.

-dave

Marc Lindahl wrote:

>I asked the same question and concluded there's no benefit I can see - I
>ended up running SQUID in front of Zserver which seems to be just dandy,
and
>SQUID offers security comparable (afik) to apache, if not better.
>
>on 10/19/02 9:05 PM, Garry Galinsky at garry@galinsky.net scrivened:
>  
>
>>This may be an obvious question to many, but not to me... why do so many
>>people run Zope behind an Apache server?  What are the benefits of an
>>Apache server, or otherwise, what are the limitations of the Zope web
>>server?  I currently run Zope alone and am evaluating the benefits of
>>use Apache.  Thanks.
>>
>>Garry Galinsky
>>    
>>




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