HHVM is an open-source virtual machine designed for executing programs written in Hack and PHP. HHVM uses a just-in-time (JIT) compilation approach to achieve superior performance while maintaining the development flexibility that PHP provides.
let’s start this tutorial on how to install HHVM with Nginx in Ubuntu 16.04.
Steps to install HHVM with nginx in Ubuntu 16.04 are as follows:
I’m assuming here that you have installed a fresh minimal Ubuntu 16.04/Debian 8 setup.
Install Latest Nginx in Ubuntu 16.04/Debian 8.
Update your system with apt-get update
shell> apt-get update
Download the key and then add the key as it is necessary to sign the nginx packages and repository to the apt program keyring.
shell> wget http://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key shell> sudo apt-key add nginx_signing.key
To download Pre-Built Packages for Stable version of Nginx.
Append the following lines to /etc/apt/sources.list.
For Ubuntu
deb http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu/ codename nginx deb-src http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu/ codename nginx
For Debian
deb http://nginx.org/packages/debian/ codename nginx deb-src http://nginx.org/packages/debian/ codename nginx
To download Pre-Built Packages for Mainline version of Nginx
Append the following lines to /etc/apt/sources.list.
For Ubuntu
deb http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/ubuntu/ codename nginx deb-src http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/ubuntu/ codename nginx
For Debian
deb http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/debian/ codename nginx deb-src http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/debian/ codename nginx
Replace “codename” with Ubuntu/Debian distribution’s codename.
Debian: Debian Version Codename Debian 7.x wheezy Debian 8.x jessie
Ubutnu: Ubuntu Version Codename Ubuntu 12.04 precise Ubuntu 14.04 trusty Ubuntu 16.04 xenial
For example, if you are using Ubuntu 16.04, Add following lines at the end of /etc/apt/sources.list.
deb http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/ubuntu/ xenial nginx deb-src http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/ubuntu/ xenial nginx
vi /etc/apt/sources.list
Start the Nginx service
shell> systemctl status nginx shell> systemctl enable nginx shell> systemctl start nginx
Install and Configure HHVM.
Add the HHVM repository to your system.
shell> sudo apt-get install software-properties-common shell> sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 0x5a16e7281be7a449 shell> sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://dl.hhvm.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" shell> sudo apt-get update shell> sudo apt-get install hhvm
Check if HHVM is working.
Add this file into your document root.
shell> echo -e "<?php\n\nphpinfo();\n\n?>" > /usr/share/html/test.php
Restart nginx and HHVM server to apply these changes.
shell> systemctl restart nginx shell> systemctl restart hhvm
Finally, Enter this address in your Browser.
http://server-ip-address/test.php
HHVM Advanced Usage configuration: FastCGI
HHVM has built-in support for two server types: Proxygen and FastCGI.
HHVM-FastCGI works in the same way as PHP-FPM. HHVM, when running in FastCGI mode, is started independently of the web server which is Nginx in this case.
We can configure HHVM to listen on a TCP socket (default port 9000) or a Unix socket. However, you should configure HHVM to listen on a Socket instead of Port for better performance and CPU and memory consumption.
Another important point is, Nginx needs to be configured to know where your PHP files are and how to forward them to HHVM to execute.
The /usr/share/hhvm directory contains few scripts that can help us in this situation. The script /usr/share/hhvm/install_fastcgi.sh will configure nginx correctly for stock installs. The script when executed, will direct nginx to take any file that ends in .hh or .php and send it to HHVM via FastCGI.
shell> cd /usr/share/hhvm/ shell> bash install_fastcgi.sh
More Info:
This script works only with a default Nginx configuration without any FastCGI configurations. This script adds the configuration file /etc/nginx/hhvm.conf to the default Nginx server block configuration /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default.
Although, If you are using custom FastCGI configuration in your server block then you will have to manually add new FastCGI configuration in your nginx configuration.
Additionally, If you are using Mainline version of Nginx then install_fastcgi.sh may not be able to configure FastCGI setup for your server. In that case, you may need to manually add following setting in your nginx.conf settings.
vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf ..... ..... location ~ \.(hh|php)$ { root /usr/share/nginx/html; fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; # fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/hhvm/sock; fastcgi_index index.php; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name; include fastcgi_params; }
Also, make sure HHVM is listening on port 9000.
shell> cd /etc/hhvm
vi server.ini ; php options pid = /var/run/hhvm/pid ; hhvm specific hhvm.server.port = 9000 hhvm.server.type = fastcgi hhvm.server.default_document = index.php hhvm.log.use_log_file = true hhvm.log.file = /var/log/hhvm/error.log hhvm.repo.central.path = /var/run/hhvm/hhvm.hhbc
To use HHVM as a PHP alternative.
shell> sudo /usr/bin/update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/php php /usr/bin/hhvm 60
Once again, restart nginx and HHVM server to apply these changes.
shell> systemctl restart nginx shell> systemctl restart hhvm
Configure HHVM to listen on UNIX Socket instead of TCP SOCKET.
If yow want HHVM to listen on a Socket instead of Port for better performance and CPU and memory consumption. Then follow these steps.
vi /etc/hhvm/server.ini ; php options pid = /var/run/hhvm/pid ; hhvm specific # hhvm.server.port = 9000 hhvm.server.file_socket=/var/run/hhvm/hhvm.sock hhvm.server.type = fastcgi hhvm.server.default_document = index.php hhvm.log.use_log_file = true hhvm.log.file = /var/log/hhvm/error.log hhvm.repo.central.path = /var/run/hhvm/hhvm.hhbc
Also, make changes in FastCGI configurations of your Nginx.
location ~ \.(hh|php)$ { root /usr/share/nginx/html; # fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/hhvm/hhvm.sock; fastcgi_index index.php; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name; include fastcgi_params; }
Restart Nginx and HHVM server to apply these changes.
shell> systemctl restart nginx shell> systemctl restart hhvm
Tweaking /etc/hhvm/php.ini for HHVM.
The default value of memory limit in php.ini for HHVM is equal to 17179869184 bytes (17 GB) which are more than enough to make your VPS unusable/unresponsive if it has only few GB of RAM.
So if you have 2GB (at least) of RAM then it is safe to dedicate around 50-55% of RAM to HHVM. Add this new variable after the ; php options section in /etc/hhvm/php.ini.
Here are few other useful settings.
; php
memory_limit = 1200M
upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_time = 300
max_file_uploads = 20
Problems while Running HHVM with Latest version of Nginx in Ubuntu 16.04 and Debian 8.
If you see errors like below in /var/log/nginx/error.log.
connect() to unix:/var/run/hhvm/hhvm.sock failed (13: Permission denied) while connecting to upstream, client:...
then you need to make sure nginx is able to write to the php5-fpm or hhvm Unix socket.
Check the ownership of hhvm.sock
shell> ls -l /var/run/hhvm/hhvm.sock srwxrw---- 1 www-data www-data 0 Nov 28 18:00 /var/run/hhvm/hhvm.sock
Check Name of your Nginx user.
shell> cat /etc/nginx/nginx.conf | grep user user nginx; log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" ' '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';
As you can see that Nginx is running as user nginx whereas www-data is the owner of /var/run/hhvm/hhvm.sock.
To make this all work, you need to add Nginx in the group www-data
shell> usermod -aG www-data nginx
Once again, restart Nginx and HHVM server to apply these changes.
shell> systemctl restart nginx shell> systemctl restart hhvm
To conclude, HHVM can really make a difference in your server’s performance and can help you increase your Page load speed. I have tried to be as brief as possible while covering this topic,
Still, if I have missed anything please update us through comment box. I will keep updating the same based on feedback’s received. Good Day.????
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