Hey!, "Unfortunately, our customers want mod_rewrite, which Cherokee doesn't currently support. However, we own the source code for a mod_rewrite equivalent, which we are willing to donate to Cherokee if enough people are interested."
Cherokee supports 'mod_rewrite' in different way, but I think you already know it. Btw. Nice to hear about your plans etc. Greetings, Jędrzej Nowak On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 10:54 AM, Marcus Don <[email protected]> wrote: > Since I've had virtually no response to my email below, I'll try again in > far fewer words. > > I'm interested in using Cherokee to host around 50,000 sites and 600,000 > domains, with the potential to extend this to 600,000 sites and 1.6 million > domains. > > Unfortunately, our customers want mod_rewrite, which Cherokee doesn't > currently support. However, we own the source code for a mod_rewrite > equivalent, which we are willing to donate to Cherokee if enough people are > interested. > > If you are interested in the possibility of Cherokee becoming a serious > alternative to Apache for commercial, mass hosting, please let me know. > > Thanks > > Marcus > > >> Hi >> >> Apologies in advance for the length of this email, please bear with me :) >> >> First an introduction: I'm senior manager of R&D for a group of ISPs >> including >> register.it, names.co.uk, nominalia.es, amen.fr, register365.com, and >> simplyhosting.com. As a group, we host over 1.6 million domains and 600,000 >> web sites. >> >> Currently, we have 3 shared hosting clusters in Italy, the UK and Ireland. >> The >> Italian platform is based on Apache and the UK and Irish platforms are based >> on Zeus Web Server. We also have a legacy platform, inherited from a recent >> acquisition, based on Apache and H-Sphere, which we are currently migrating >> to >> Zeus. >> >> Until recently, we have been very happy with our choice of Zeus Web Server. >> We >> have gained a solid reputation in the UK for having a very high-performing >> and >> reliable platform, and we have won the UK ISP Award (ISPA) for Best Shared >> Hosting for the last 3 years running. However, we are now considering >> migrating away from ZWS for the following reasons: >> >> 1) It hasn't been updated since 2007, and Zeus will not commit to any future >> updates other than security patches. >> 2) It makes commercial sense for us to use the same technology everywhere in >> the group. >> 3) Zeus does not support mod_rewrite. >> >> Given these requirements, and the fact we are already using it in Italy, the >> obvious solution would be to use Apache on all platforms. However, I am >> seriously concerned that the performance would suffer as a result, so I'm >> currently studying the feasibility of other options. >> >> The need for mod_rewrite is a practical, commercial requirement based on the >> fact that many 3rd-party applications require rewrite rules, and the vast >> majority only work with mod_rewrite without the intervention of a developer. >> This has always been something of issue for us, and the growing popularity of >> open source software among non-developers is greatly exacerbating the >> problem. >> Also, we now provide Softaculous for our customers, but we've had to disable >> many of the 150+ applications because of their reliance on mod_rewrite. >> >> Furthermore, when we started migrating the H-Sphere platform, we found an >> unusually high proportion of domains are using mod_rewrite. During previous >> migrations, we have replaced them with Zeus rewrite scripts, but this time >> the >> numbers are just too high. >> >> So, we recently employed an experienced C developer to write an ISAPI filter >> to replicate exactly the behaviour of mod_rewrite under Zeus. However, >> although this works perfectly in our development environment (even under >> extremely heavy loads), after a few days on the live platform, something goes >> very wrong. After several weeks of debugging, testing and reading memory >> dumps, we're convinced the problem is with Zeus's ISAPI implementation - but >> so far we are unable to prove it, and I'm not sure they would fix it even if >> we could! >> >> If you are interested, I am confident I could arrange for the source code of >> our ISAPI Rewrite module to be released to the Cherokee project for use as an >> optional module. Obviously, the ISAPI layer would need to be replaced, but >> this is a minor part of the code. All we ask in return is that someone adds >> support for the other, mostly very simple, htaccess directives. I can ask the >> original developer if he would be willing to contribute to this, but he >> doesn't work for me so I can't guarantee it. >> >> Without this functionality, the only other option available to us is >> LiteSpeed >> - but I'm not keen on adopting another closed-source solution that isn't >> gaining significant market share. Also, I am convinced this is the only major >> hurdle preventing other mass hosting providers from moving away from Apache >> to >> something that scales more efficiently, such as Cherokee. >> >> Lastly, I have another feature suggestion to address the needs of mass >> hosting >> - support for custom document root mapping functions. >> >> Currently, we use the same method as shown in the documentation - ie >> /sites/e/x/example.com. This is fine for a few 10s of thousands of sites, but >> not very efficient once you get beyond 100,000. A better solution is what we >> use on our email clusters, which have many more users (around 1,000,000 in >> Italy). This uses the last 3 characters of the MD5 checksum of the username, >> like this: /email/5ab/example.com. This produces a more even distribution >> and, >> by being wide and shallow, allows for a much more efficient stat cache. >> >> Regards >> >> Marcus >> -- >> Marcus Don >> Senior Manager >> Research and Development >> DadaPro >> >> Main Line: +44 (0)845 363 3630 >> Main Fax: +44 (0)845 363 3631 >> Tech Support: +44 (0)845 363 3634 >> Email: [email protected] >> Website: http://www.names.co.uk >> Address: Acton House, Perdiswell Park, Worcester WR3 7GD >> >> This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended >> solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. >> >> If you have received this email in error please notify the sender >> immediately. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that >> disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the >> contents of this information is strictly prohibited. Please note that any >> views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and >> do not necessarily represent those of the company. >> >> Finally, the recipient should check this email and any attachments for the >> presence of viruses. The company accepts no liability for any damage caused >> by any virus transmitted by this email. > > > _______________________________________________ > Cherokee mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.octality.com/listinfo/cherokee > _______________________________________________ Cherokee mailing list [email protected] http://lists.octality.com/listinfo/cherokee
