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Apache HTTP Server vs Apache Tomcat vs Passenger: What are the differences?
Apache HTTP Server, Apache Tomcat, and Passenger are all popular web servers that serve different purposes in the realm of web development. Below are key differences among the three:
Functionality: Apache HTTP Server is a general-purpose web server that handles HTTP requests, while Apache Tomcat is a Java Servlet container that is primarily used to serve Java-based web applications. Passenger, on the other hand, is specifically designed to serve Ruby on Rails applications efficiently.
Support: Apache HTTP Server has extensive community support and a wide variety of modules available for customization. Apache Tomcat is tailored for Java applications and provides robust support for Java-based technologies. Passenger, being focused on Ruby on Rails applications, comes with specific optimizations and tools for this framework.
Configuration: Apache HTTP Server and Passenger can be configured using Apache-style configuration files, while Apache Tomcat uses XML configuration files specific to the Java Servlet environment. This difference in configuration formats can affect the ease of setup and management for developers.
Scalability: Apache HTTP Server and Passenger can be configured to work in a load-balanced and distributed setup, making them suitable for large-scale applications. Apache Tomcat can also be used in such setups but is more commonly associated with deploying Java applications on a smaller scale.
Languages Supported: While Apache HTTP Server and Apache Tomcat primarily support Java, Ruby, PHP, Perl, and other languages, Passenger specializes in supporting Ruby on Rails applications specifically. This specialization allows Passenger to provide optimized performance for Ruby on Rails projects.
Multi-threading vs. Multi-processing: Apache HTTP Server and Passenger typically use a multi-processing module to handle requests, where each request spawns a new process. In contrast, Apache Tomcat uses a multi-threading model within the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), where threads handle concurrent requests more efficiently. This distinction can impact performance and resource usage depending on the application needs.
In Summary, Apache HTTP Server, Apache Tomcat, and Passenger differ in functionality, support, configuration, scalability, supported languages, and handling of requests through multi-processing or multi-threading models.
I am diving into web development, both front and back end. I feel comfortable with administration, scripting and moderate coding in bash, Python and C++, but I am also a Windows fan (i love inner conflict). What are the votes on web servers? IIS is expensive and restrictive (has Windows adoption of open source changed this?) Apache has the history but seems to be at the root of most of my Infosec issues, and I know nothing about nginx (is it too new to rely on?). And no, I don't know what I want to do on the web explicitly, but hosting and data storage (both cloud and tape) are possibilities. Ready, aim fire!
I would pick nginx over both IIS and Apace HTTP Server any day. Combine it with docker, and as you grow maybe even traefik, and you'll have a really flexible solution for serving http content where you can take sites and projects up and down without effort, easily move it between systems and dont have to handle any dependencies on your actual local machine.
From a StackShare Community member: "We are a LAMP shop currently focused on improving web performance for our customers. We have made many front-end optimizations and now we are considering replacing Apache with nginx. I was wondering if others saw a noticeable performance gain or any other benefits by switching."
I use nginx because it is very light weight. Where Apache tries to include everything in the web server, nginx opts to have external programs/facilities take care of that so the web server can focus on efficiently serving web pages. While this can seem inefficient, it limits the number of new bugs found in the web server, which is the element that faces the client most directly.
I use nginx because its more flexible and easy to configure
I use Apache HTTP Server because it's intuitive, comprehensive, well-documented, and just works
For us, NGINX is a lite HTTP server easy to configure. On our research, we found a well-documented software we a lot of support from the community.
We have been using it alongside tools like certbot and it has been a total success.
We can easily configure our sites and have a folder for available vs enabled sites, and with the nginx -t command we can easily check everything is running fine.
- Server rendered HTML output from PHP is being migrated to the client as Vue.js components, future plans to provide additional content, and other new miscellaneous features all result in a substantial increase of static files needing to be served from the server. NGINX has better performance than Apache for serving static content.
- The change to NGINX will require switching from PHP to PHP-FPM resulting in a distributed architecture with a higher complexity configuration, but this is outweighed by PHP-FPM being faster than PHP for processing requests.
- The NGINX + PHP-FPM setup now allows for horizontally scaling of resources rather vertically scaling the previously combined Apache + PHP resources.
- PHP shell tasks can now efficiently be decoupled from the application reducing main application footprint and allow for scaling of tasks on an individual basis.
I was in a situation where I have to configure 40 RHEL servers 20 each for Apache HTTP Server and Tomcat server. My task was to 1. configure LVM with required logical volumes, format and mount for HTTP and Tomcat servers accordingly. 2. Install apache and tomcat. 3. Generate and apply selfsigned certs to http server. 4. Modify default ports on Tomcat to different ports. 5. Create users on RHEL for application support team. 6. other administrative tasks like, start, stop and restart HTTP and Tomcat services.
I have utilized the power of ansible for all these tasks, which made it easy and manageable.
Pros of Passenger
- Nginx integration43
- Great for rails36
- Fast web server21
- Free19
- Lightweight15
- Scalable14
- Rolling restarts13
- Multithreading10
- Out-of-process architecture9
- Low-bandwidth6
- Virtually infinitely scalable2
- Deployment error resistance2
- Mass deployment2
- High-latency2
- Many of its good features are only enterprise level1
- Apache integration1
- Secure1
- Asynchronous I/O1
- Multiple programming language support1
Pros of Apache Tomcat
- Easy79
- Java72
- Popular49
- Spring web1
Cons of Passenger
- Cost (some features require paid/pro)0
Cons of Apache Tomcat
- Blocking - each http request block a thread2
- Easy to set up1
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