Re: PHP Proxy

[Scott Klement <web400@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My guess is (and actually, I think I heard this from someone at Zend -- 
but my memory is fuzzy, so don't quote me on that...)

The PASE version of Apache doesn't support any of the i5/OS specific 
features of Apache.  For example, you can't run RPG CGI programs, or run 
the native connector to Websphere via the PASE version.  You can't set 
up an application that requires a login via a validation list in the 
PASE version (you'd have to use the AIX htpasswd mechanism instead). 
You can't do PasswdFile %%SYSTEM%% or UserID %%CLIENT%% in the PASE 
apache  (again, because the PASE apache would be looking for an AIX 
password file, not i5/OS *USRPRF objects).

Another (perhaps more common) issue...  static HTML might be stored in 
EBCDIC with the native Apache server, and the native server would 
automatically convert it to ASCII before sending it to the browser.  The 
PASE one would not, since it has no notion of EBCDIC.

So to enable all of the various native i5/OS features of Apache, they 
use a regular native Apache server as a front-end, and it proxies to the 
PASE version.  Depending on your configuration, the PASE version can 
merely act as an engine for running PHP, where everything else can be 
done by the native Apache.  (though, by default, I think Zend has 
everything proxied...  but... at least you have the option to change 
that...)


Alfredo Delgado wrote:
> Zend Core runs as an Apache module on an instance of Apache in PASE. You're
> expected to use an i5 Apache instance to proxy PHP requests to the Apache
> instance in PASE.
>
> Has anyone looked into the benefits of this configuration vs. directing
> traffic directly to the instance in PASE?
>
> Alfred