Re: FASTCGI and release 7.1 Zend CE installation instructions

Aaron,

A native program (the IBM-supplied programs for Apache) cannot load an AIX program (Zend's port of PHP) as a module. So Zend server cannot run as an Apache module in the native HTTP server.

Their old solution to this was to operate in an Apache module of the AIX version of Apache. That worked, but required two copies of Apache (native and PASE) with a proxy between them, and this caused a lot of problems for folks.

So they changed it. They eliminated the Apache module and the AIX version of Apache, and instead they use FastCGI. FastCGI involves a "never-ending" program running in batch that communicates with the Apache server via sockets. It's published as an open standard for everyone to use. PHP has supported FastCGI for a long time, so very little extra work was required on Zend's part. (IBM had to add FastCGI support to their HTTP server, though.)

In fact, you can run the Zend Core PHP with FastCGI support instead of the 2nd HTTP server if you want to. All Zend really did was package it nicely and write the installer to make it easy to setup. (and provide support, etc.)

So that's why it needs to exist.

As for the "ugly port on the URL". The only reason you get that is because you've chosen to run your HTTP server on a non-standard port. Frankly, that should *only* be done in test scenarios... it'll doubtless cause firewall problems for some customers if you try to do it in production.


On 12/21/2010 1:52 PM, Aaron Bartell wrote:

Do you have any concern with FastCGI on IBM i?

No concern. Just trying to learn why it needs to exist. I am actively
trying to get two APache instances to co-exist on my IBMi without one
requiring the ugly port on the URL. Here is where my progress is
documented:
http://forums.zend.com/viewtopic.php?f=77&t=8901&sid=bdd702ec4748c42f33c8f38e3abc5de3&p=29605#p29605