Centos, Varnish, NGINX, Drupal

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As an experiment this week I decided to change the web server of a site to NGINX, the existing web server was Apache. I would like to share the steps required to setup NGINX with Varnish to make your Drupal site run at a blazing speed.

Environment:

Centos 6

16G RAM

Quadcore processor.

Install NGINX

yum install nginx

Configure NGINX

Open /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Add the following lines at the bottom of “http” block:

include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*.conf;
server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;

1 2	include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*.conf; server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;

It will look something like:

http {
    include       /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;

    log_format  main  '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
                      '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
                      '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

    access_log  /var/log/nginx/access.log  main;

    sendfile        on;
    #tcp_nopush     on;

    #keepalive_timeout  0;
    keepalive_timeout  65;

    #gzip  on;

    # Load config files from the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory
    # The default server is in conf.d/default.conf
    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
    include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*.conf;
    server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;

}

http {

include /etc/nginx/mime.types;

default_type application/octet-stream;

log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '

'$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '

'"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main;

sendfile on;

#tcp_nopush on;

#keepalive_timeout 0;

keepalive_timeout 65;

#gzip on;

# Load config files from the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory

# The default server is in conf.d/default.conf

include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;

include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*.conf;

server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;

}

Add host yoursitename.com

Create two directories sites-available and sites-enabled

mkdir /etc/nginx/sites-available
mkdir /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

1 2	mkdir /etc/nginx/sites-available mkdir /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

Create a file named “yoursitename.com.conf” under sites-available and paste the following contents:

server {
        listen   81; # as varnish is running at port 80
        root /www/html/yoursitename.com;  #Update this path according to your default directory
        index index.php index.html index.htm;
        server_name yoursitename.com www.yoursitename.com;
        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;
        }
        error_page 404 /404.html;
        error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
                root /www/html/biyixia.com;
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
                root           /www/html/yoursitename.com;
                fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
                fastcgi_index  index.php;
                fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME   $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
                include        fastcgi_params;
        }
}

server {

listen 81; # as varnish is running at port 80

root /www/html/yoursitename.com; #Update this path according to your default directory

index index.php index.html index.htm;

server_name yoursitename.com www.yoursitename.com;

location / {

try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;

}

error_page 404 /404.html;

error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;

location = /50x.html {

root /www/html/biyixia.com;

}

location ~ \.php$ {

root /www/html/yoursitename.com;

fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;

fastcgi_index index.php;

fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;

include fastcgi_params;

}

Please note that the port number is “81” as varnish will run at port 80 and will behave like content server.

Create a symlink and remove the default configuration:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/yoursitename.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/yoursitename.com
rm /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

1 2	sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/yoursitename.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/yoursitename.com rm /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

Please note that default.conf’s location can be different based on different platforms.

Change owner of the web directory

chown -R nginx:nginx /www/html/yoursitename.com

1	chown -R nginx:nginx /www/html/yoursitename.com

Install Varnish

yum install varnish

1	yum install varnish

Configure Varnish

Open /etc/sysconfig/varnish, replace the following values:

VARNISH_STORAGE_SIZE = 3G
VARNISH_LISTEN_PORT=80

1 2	VARNISH_STORAGE_SIZE = 3G VARNISH_LISTEN_PORT=80

Keep all other values as it is.

Open /etc/varnish/default.vcl and update “backend default” block to the following:

backend default {
  .host = "127.0.0.1";
  .port = "81”; #get content from nginx from port 81
}

backend default {

.host = "127.0.0.1";

.port = "81”; #get content from nginx from port 81

}

Install PHP FPM

I am also using php fpm for faster php processing. Here is the command for that, simple simple

yum install php-fpm

1	yum install php-fpm

Restart servers:

service varnish restart
service nginx restart
service php-fpm restart

service varnish restart

service nginx restart

service php-fpm restart

Configure Varnish with Drupal

Install Drupal’s varnish module

Add the following lines to your settings.php:

$conf['cache_backends'][] = 'sites/all/modules/third-part/varnish/varnish.cache.inc';
$conf['cache_class_cache_page'] = 'VarnishCache';
$conf['page_cache_invoke_hooks'] = FALSE;

$conf['cache_backends'][] = 'sites/all/modules/third-part/varnish/varnish.cache.inc';

$conf['cache_class_cache_page'] = 'VarnishCache';

$conf['page_cache_invoke_hooks'] = FALSE;

Go to varnish configuration: admin /config /development /varnish

Set Varnish control terminal: 127.0.0.1:6082

Set Varnish Control key from/etc/varnish/secret

Please make sure the “Varnish running” is ticked.

Awesome, you are done. Enjoy the faster response times of your site.

Please comment if you have any feedback

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