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I'm trying to improve performance under high load and would like to implement opcode caching. Which of the following should I use?
I'm also open to any other alternatives that have slipped under my radar.
Currently running on a stock Debian Etch with Apache 2 and PHP 5.2
[Update 1]
HowtoForge installation links added
[Update 2]
Based on the answers and feedback given, I have tested all 3 implementations using the following Apache JMeter test plan on my application:
With 50 concurrent connections, the results are as follows:
No Opcode Caching
APC
eAccelerator
XCache
Performance Graph (smaller is better)
From the above results, eAccelerator has a slight edge in performance compared to APC and XCache. However, what matters most from the above data is that any sort of opcode caching gives a tremendous boost in performance.
I have decided to use APC due to the following 2 reasons:
To summarize my experience:
Ease of Installation: APC > eAccelerator > XCache
Performance: eAccelerator > APC, XCache
Control Panel: APC > XCache > eAccelerator
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What are OpCode Caches? OpCode Caches are a performance enhancing extension for PHP. They do this by injecting themselves into the execution life-cycle of PHP and caching the results of the compilation phase for later reuse. It is not uncommon to see a 3x performance increase just by enabling an OpCode cache.
Enabling opcode caching If you do not see the Select PHP Version icon, your server does not support this feature. Select the check box next to the opcode caching extension you want to enable: If you are using PHP version 5.4 or older, select apc. If you are using PHP version 5.5 or newer, select opcache.
OPcache is a type of caching system that saves precompiled script bytecode in a server's memory called a cache, so each time a user visits a web page, it loads faster.
I think the answer might depend on the type of web applications you are running. I had to make this decision myself two years ago and couldn't decide between Zend Optimizer and eAccelerator.
In order to make my decision, I used ab (apache bench) to test the server, and tested the three combinations (zend, eaccelerator, both running) and proved that eAccelerator on its own gave the greatest performance.
If you have the luxury of time, I would recommend doing similar tests yourself, and making the decision based on your results.
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I have run several benchmarks with eAcclerator, APC, XCache, and Zend Optimizer (even though Zend is an optimizer, not a cache).
Benchmark Results http://blogs.interdose.com/dominik/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/opcode_wordpress.png
Result: eAccelerator is fastest (in all tests), followed by XCache and APC. (The one in the diagram is the number of seconds to call a WordPress home page 10,000 times).
Zend Optimizer made everything slower (!).
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