[rt-users] FastCGI vs. mod_perl (not mod_ssl)

[Vivek Khera]

I think the answer will be a resounding "maybe".

Here are the issues as I see them:

1) are you running RT on its own private instance of apache?
2) are you on a dedicated host just for RT?
3) how busy is your RT web interface?  that is, how many people are
   processing tickets simultaneously?

I think the main thing is issue 1.  If you're running a private
mod_perl apache for RT, then you have little advantage to running
FastCGI.  About the only thing I can think is that FastCGI may do some
buffering to free up the perl process to handle another request, and
that will bring into play issue 3.  If you're not a very busy web
site, then it doesn't matter that the process was freed up for another
request since there most likely won't be one waiting to run.

If you're running a single apache to handle a bunch of services, then
you're likely to benefit with FastCGI (or SpeedyCGI) since only the
heavy-weight RT requests will go thru the perl interpreter, not every
single request.

The mod_perl tuning document (included in mod_perl) would be worth a
good read.  Just think of the Fast/SpeedyCGI setup as moral equivalent
to the mod_proxy based front/back end setup to mod_perl.  RT doesn't
use any of the Apache handler hooks provided by mod_perl, so there is
nothing lost by eliminating it.

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Vivek Khera, Ph.D.                Khera Communications, Inc.
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