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PHP Performance Optimization: Practical Guide to Web Server Configuration Tuning

M66 2025-10-28

Web Server Configuration Tuning for PHP Application Performance Optimization

Introduction

The configuration of a Web server has a significant impact on PHP application performance. Proper settings can effectively reduce response times, improve user experience, and enhance system stability.

Key Configurations

Thread Pool

Adjusting the thread pool size can improve the ability of the application to handle concurrent requests.

// It is recommended to use a value greater than the number of CPU cores
worker_processes 4;

Keepalive Timeout

The keepalive timeout determines how long a connection remains open during inactivity. Proper configuration balances response speed and server resource usage.

keepalive_timeout 5;  // 5 seconds

Connection Limits

Limiting the maximum number of connections per worker process helps prevent server resource exhaustion.

max_connections 1024;

GZIP Compression

Enabling GZIP compression reduces response size, improving page load speed.

gzip on;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/javascript;

File Caching

Providing cached copies of frequently requested files reduces disk I/O and improves response efficiency.

location ~ \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|css|js)$ {
  expires max;
  add_header Cache-Control public;
}

Practical Case

In an e-commerce PHP application, implementing the following optimizations significantly improved performance:

* Increased thread pool size from 2 to 6, reducing response time by approximately 25%.
* Adjusted keepalive timeout from 10 seconds to 2 seconds, lowering latency and improving concurrency.
* Enabled GZIP compression, reducing single product page response size by around 40%.
* Added file caching, decreasing homepage load time by about 30%.

Conclusion

By carefully tuning Web server configurations, PHP application performance can be significantly enhanced. Combining strategies such as thread pool adjustments, keepalive settings, connection limits, GZIP compression, and file caching can provide faster responses and a better user experience.