Creating domain error after installing Zend Server
I used to deem Zend Server is overall a good solution for php website development and deployment. However, over a year’s time I realise it brings so many troubles. It is not compatible with Plesk as shown in the screenshot. I can not solve this problem.
It stops yum on Fedora. I can solve this problem but, troublesome.
Do I enjoy any unique feature of Zend Server? None as I can remember. Occasionally I use “debug on server”, but it is a feature of Zend Debug, not of Zend Server.
Also, Zend Server pulls me back to Apache, to which I prefer Nginx.
Actually, I have no reasons to love Zend Server. So I decide to leave it.
There are some website benchmark tools, looking after various aspects of performance.
The tool I use most is Apache Benchmark, and parameters are 10 concurrencies, e.g.
ab -c 10 -n 200 (page_url)
It reflects the status quo. I have a decent server but the sites are not busy.
Since I dived into Magento, I have been spent quite a lot researching how to improve its speed. I implemented database query cache, enabled block html cache, utilised memcache, tmpfs, apc, etc, etc. Recently I started a project called Full Page Cache Preparer (FPCP) and expected it fundamentally improve Magento speed on Catalog and Cms pages.
FPCP is only 20% completion (it is not producing all blocks with session variables, but shopping cart sidebar), but I am eager to see some result. So I turn it on and compare the Requests Per Second to the time when it is off. I see a marginal 1-2% improvement which is very disappointing.
Why I had the impression that full page cache feature will dramatically drive Magento faster? What if full page cache is working with web server cache, say nginx ncache? I simulate a test by saving a page html source code to a static file and uploading it to web server. (I should have done this test before I started FPCP project.) The result is disappointing, again.
The test is done on a heavy page (with loads of images).
ADSL connection (8,187/1,291 kbps) to datacentre 100 mbps
ADSL connection (4,212/1,078 kbps) to datacentre 100 mbps
directly run ab test on webserver
Request via Magento /index.php
9.18
4.56
16.23
Request a static .html file on filesystem (bypass php parser)
8.23
4.65
3368.82
Request a .php file on filesystem (same content as .html, no php tag inside)
8.72
4.62
1584.05
The figures in first two columns (ADSL connection) go up and down when I run tests again and again. Sometimes requesting a static file is even slower than requesting Magento index.php. My conclusion is, even when Magento full page cache is working in conjunction with nginx ncache, I cannot feel the sites are faster (when the server load is not high).
However, I will finish my FPCP module (some day) because I believe it benefits people whose server load is high. To improve my own sites, I will focus on basic (if I call FPCP hi-tech) page speed recommendations, e.g., optimise images, concurrent downloads, cookieless domains for static files, merge js/css files, gzip, etc.
I want to establish a protocol for my dataflow in Magento, part of which is “all csv files contains import data should be comma separated”.
OpenOffice is an efficient tool to edit csv files, but how to save them using comma separator? I found OpenOffice behaviour quite unpredictable, sometimes comma separated, sometimes semi-colon separated. Maybe it depends on csv original format upon opening or creating.
How to always save a comma separated csv in OpenOffice?
I did not find a way to make it happen by default, but it can be achieved by 2 steps:
1. Use “Save As…”, and check option “Edit filter settings”
