Episodes

  • Taking a Summer Break

    Taking a Summer Break

    · The Undercover ElePHPant

    We should be back with a new season of the podcast after the Summer but will let you know, exactly, when that will be when we have a firm date set.

    Hosted By: Benjamin Eberlei and Matthew Setter.

    Thanks for tuning in to the Undercover ElePHPant. If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone very knowledgeable in writing highly performant and scalable PHP applications, email [email protected].

    This podcast is produced by Tideways. Don't look further for an all in one Monitoring, Profiling and Exception Tracking software for PHP applications available on tideways.com. Follow us on Twitter (@tidewaysio). Find out more about us at https://tideways.com.

  • Talking Background Processes and Workers in PHP With Samuel Roze

    Talking Background Processes and Workers in PHP With Samuel Roze

    · The Undercover ElePHPant

    Samuel shared a load of excellent advice that you can start using today in your PHP applications, including:

    The common challenges with background processes and PHP?Why background processes & workers can be an important aspect of PHP applications?What angel processes areHow to handle failed background processesHow to handle memory in PHP with long-running processesPlus loads load more!

    Links

    Tideways Blog: Five Challenges Running Reliable Background Jobs in PHPSolid (by Sir Tim Berners-Lee)The Symfony Messenger ComponentEpisode 4: Retries and Timeouts with Bastian HofmannRabbitMQBeanstalkdAmazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)Apache KafkaBirdie

    Guests: Samuel Roze

    Hosted By: Benjamin Eberlei and Matthew Setter.

    Thanks for tuning in to the Undercover ElePHPant. If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone very knowledgeable in writing highly performant and scalable PHP applications, email [email protected].

    This podcast is produced by Tideways. Don't look further for an all in one Monitoring, Profiling and Exception Tracking software for PHP applications available on tideways.com. Follow us on Twitter (@tidewaysio). Find out more about us at https://tideways.com.

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  • Talking about PHP-FPM Tuning with Arne Blankerts

    Talking about PHP-FPM Tuning with Arne Blankerts

    · The Undercover ElePHPant

    Arne shared a load of excellent advice that you can start using today in your PHP applications, including:

    What PHP-FPM isWhat differentiates PHP-FPM from Apache/mod_php?NGINX's different pool types (dynamic, static, and ondemand)How to configure PHP-FPM for high-performance and throughputUsing multiple PHP-FPM pools in the same application?Plus loads more!

    Links

    Slides: Optimizing PHP-FPM for Production (PDF)Tideways blog: An Introduction to PHP-FPM TuningPHP-FPMConfiguring PHP-FPM in PHPThread Pools in NGINX Boost Performance 9xApache2 and php fpm performance optimization — Step-by-step guidethePHP.cc

    Guests: Arne Blankerts

    Hosted By: Benjamin Eberlei and Matthew Setter.

    Thanks for tuning in to the Undercover ElePHPant. If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone very knowledgeable in writing highly performant and scalable PHP applications, email [email protected].

    This podcast is produced by Tideways. Don't look further for an all in one Monitoring, Profiling and Exception Tracking software for PHP applications available on tideways.com. Follow us on Twitter (@tidewaysio). Find out more about us at https://tideways.com.

  • Talking Logging for Production Applications + Best Practices with Jordi Boggiano

    Talking Logging for Production Applications + Best Practices with Jordi Boggiano

    · The Undercover ElePHPant

    In this episode, Benjamin and Matthew talk with Jordi Boggiano about logging in production applications as well as logging best practices. We also talk about logging formats, filtering log messages, Monolog and loads more! Jordi shared a load of excellent advice that you can start using today in your PHP applications, including:

    How to get started with loggingHow to integrate logging into an existing applicationOptions for parsing log files once they're availableHow many log lines to use per requestHow to create meaningful log recordsJordi's logging best practicesSome privacy points to be aware of in the context of the GDPR, CalOPPA, HIPPA, etc.Plus loads load more!

    Links

    Tideways Blog: Four Logging Best Practices for Production ApplicationsGlobal Privacy Laws ExplainedPrivate PackagistComposerTreeware License

    Guests: Jordi Boggiano

    Hosted By: Benjamin Eberlei and Matthew Setter.

    Thanks for tuning in to the Undercover ElePHPant. If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone very knowledgeable in writing highly performant and scalable PHP applications, email [email protected].

    This podcast is produced by Tideways. Don't look further for an all in one Monitoring, Profiling and Exception Tracking software for PHP applications available on tideways.com. Follow us on Twitter (@tidewaysio). Find out more about us at https://tideways.com.

  • Talking Shared-nothing and Shared Everything Architectures + Bref with Matthieu Napoli

    Talking Shared-nothing and Shared Everything Architectures + Bref with Matthieu Napoli

    · The Undercover ElePHPant

    In this episode, Benjamin and Matthew talk with Matthieu Napoli about Shared-nothing and Shared Everything Architectures. We also talk about Bref, Swoole, ReactPHP and loads more! Matthieu shared a load of excellent advice that you can start using today in your PHP applications, including:

    What Shared-nothing and Shared Everything architectures areThe advantages and disadvantages of both architecture typesWhy PHP is the language which is most suited to Serverless and FaaS (Function as a Service)A little of the right mindset for developing Serverless code in PHPSome of the challenges ahead for PHPWhere PHP could go in the future with respect to Shared-Nothing architecturePlus loads load more!

    Links

    Bref (Build Serverless PHP Applications)Serverless PHP NewsServerless PHP applications with Bref (YouTube)FaaS (Function as a Service)SwooleRoadrunnerReactPHP

    Guests: Matthieu Napoli.

    Hosted By: Benjamin Eberlei and Matthew Setter.

    Thanks for tuning in to the Undercover ElePHPant. If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone very knowledgeable in writing highly performant and scalable PHP applications, email [email protected].

    This podcast is produced by Tideways. Don't look further for an all in one Monitoring, Profiling and Exception Tracking software for PHP applications available on tideways.com. Follow us on Twitter (@tidewaysio). Find out more about us at https://tideways.com.

  • Integrating with Third-Party APIs with Nils Adermann

    Integrating with Third-Party APIs with Nils Adermann

    · The Undercover ElePHPant

    In this episode, Benjamin and Matthew talk with Nils Adermann about integrating with third-party APIs in PHP. Nils shares some excellent advice, including:

    Handling retries and timeoutsEfficiently and effectively working with multiple API vendorsHow to work with vendors when their actions break your appsDifferent types of responses (the good and the bad)Writing testsUsing incremental backoffsWorking with rolling rate windowsPlus loads load more — including some vendor horror stories!

    Links

    Private PackagistComposerSatisReliable Integration with Third-Party APIs in PHP

    Guests: Nils Adermann.

    Hosted By: Benjamin Eberlei and Matthew Setter.

    Thanks for tuning in to the Undercover ElePHPant. If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone very knowledgeable in writing highly performant and scalable PHP applications, email [email protected].

    This podcast is produced by Tideways. Don't look further for an all in one Monitoring, Profiling and Exception Tracking software for PHP applications available on tideways.com. Follow us on Twitter (@tidewaysio). Find out more about us at https://tideways.com.

  • Retries and Timeouts with Bastian Hofmann

    Retries and Timeouts with Bastian Hofmann

    · The Undercover ElePHPant

    In this episode, Benjamin and Matthew talk with Bastian Hofmann about handling retries and timeouts in PHP. Bastian shares a load of great advice, including:

    Having dedicated hosts for certain trafficDistinguishing between normal users and admin usersOffloading work to asynchronous jobsDefault socket timeouts and max execution timesAutomatic retriesTuning settings and rules of thumbs as to how to do soTooling for monitoringCircuit breakersIntegrating monitoring into legacy codebasesPlus loads load more!

    Links

    SysEleven GmbHDataDogNewRelicstatsdIstiolinkerdKubernetes

    Guests: Bastian Hofmann.

    Hosted By: Benjamin Eberlei and Matthew Setter.

    Thanks for tuning in to the Undercover ElePHPant. If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone very knowledgeable in writing highly performant and scalable PHP applications, email [email protected].

    This podcast is produced by Tideways. Don't look further for an all in one Monitoring, Profiling and Exception Tracking software for PHP applications available on tideways.com. Follow us on Twitter (@tidewaysio). Find out more about us at https://tideways.com.

  • How to Run PHP Applications on Multiple Servers

    How to Run PHP Applications on Multiple Servers

    · The Undercover ElePHPant

    In this episode, Benjamin and Matthew talk with Robert Douglass and Larry Garfield from Platform.sh about running PHP applications on multiple servers. Robert and Larry share a load of excellent advice, including:

    - Why you need to use Load Balancers (along with what they are and some of the key options)

    - How PHP is exceptionally well suited to being deployed across multiple servers out of the box

    - How you can start deploying your PHP apps on multiple servers today

    - How to properly share files, data, cache, and sessions

    - Why sticky sessions are, often, a bad idea

    - How to handle workers and Cron jobs

    - Plus loads load more!

    Links

    Platform.shGlusterFSLoad BalancingFour Key Considerations for Running PHP on Multiple Servers

    Guests: Robert Douglass and Larry Garfield.

    Hosted By: Benjamin Eberlei and Matthew Setter.

    Thanks for tuning in to the Undercover ElePHPant. If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone very knowledgeable in writing highly performant and scalable PHP applications, email [email protected].

    This podcast is produced by Tideways. Don't look further for an all in one Monitoring, Profiling and Exception Tracking software for PHP applications available on tideways.com. Follow us on Twitter (@tidewaysio). Find out more about us at https://tideways.com.

  • PHP Performance with Marco Pivetta (ocramius)

    PHP Performance with Marco Pivetta (ocramius)

    · The Undercover ElePHPant

    In this episode, Benjamin and Matthew, talk with Marco Pivetta (ocramius) about:

    PHP 7.4's new preloading feature: what it is, how it works, the benefits and drawbacks of using itThe speed differences between different versions of PHP (especially in 7.x)The difference between OPcache and PreloadingHow Composer's autoloader may soon be a thing of the past

    Notable Quotes

    Composer is the mother of all frameworks.The (Composer) autoloader will gradually disappear.You wouldn't build a house and not check it for 10 years. It should be the same for software projects.Everything (in software development) is a trade-off.

    Links

    https://tideways.com/profiler/blog/5-ways-to-increase-php-performancehttps://wiki.php.net/rfc/preloadRoave/you-are-using-it-wrongRoave/BackwardCompatibilityCheck

    Guests: Marco Pivetta.
    Hosted By: Benjamin Eberlei, and Matthew Setter.

    Thanks for tuning in to the Undercover ElePHPant. If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone very knowledgeable in writing highly performant and scalable PHP applications, email [email protected].

    This podcast is produced by Tideways. Don't look further for an all in one Monitoring, Profiling and Exception Tracking software for PHP applications available on tideways.com. Follow us on Twitter (@tidewaysio). Find out more about us at https://tideways.com.

  • Talking Garbage Collection with Derick Rethans

    Talking Garbage Collection with Derick Rethans

    · The Undercover ElePHPant

    Thanks to PHP being an interpreted language and it that it has a garbage collector, PHP developers don't often have to think about memory management. Unlike developers in compiled languages, such as C/C++, we don't have to give that much thought to memory allocation and deallocation.

    However, it's helpful to have a broad understanding of how garbage collection works in PHP, along with how you can interact with it so that you can create high performing applications.

    In this episode, Benjamin and Matthew, talk with Derick Rethans about:

    The basics of how garbage collection works in PHPAbout how Xdebug and garbage collection in PHP came aboutAbout some of the functions available for interacting with itHow to get the most out of garbage collection

    Links

    https://tideways.com/profiler/blog/what-is-garbage-collection-in-php-and-how-do-you-make-the-most-of-ithttps://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0aa0/bbefc44d55a18826a0d82007f4b1f678cb36.pdfhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14823054https://xdebug.org/supporthttps://derickrethans.nl/xdebug-update-september-2019.html

    Guests: Derick Rethans.
    Hosted By: Benjamin Eberlei, and Matthew Setter.

    Thanks for tuning in to the Undercover ElePHPant. If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone very knowledgeable in writing highly performant and scalable PHP applications, email [email protected].

    This podcast is produced by Tideways. Don't look further for an all in one Monitoring, Profiling and Exception Tracking software for PHP applications available on tideways.com. Follow us on Twitter (@tidewaysio). Find out more about us at https://tideways.com.

  • Introducing the Undercover ElePHPant

    Introducing the Undercover ElePHPant

    · The Undercover ElePHPant

    Welcome to the introductory episode of The Undercover ElePHPant.
    This is the welcome episode, where we give you the rundown on what the podcast is about, who we, your lovely podcast hosts, are and what you can expect to hear.

    So, let's get started.
    This podcast aims to do three, core, things:

    Uncover details and secrets of scaling PHP and how to maximise its performance.Discuss different strategies to deploy PHP applications and scripts in production.Provide helpful tips and tricks to keeping a PHP app running smoothly.


    Now, for a little bit about us, your hosts.

    Benjamin: I am Benjamin, I contributed to Doctrine and Symfony over the years and have started contributing to PHP and specifically the DOM extension. I am also deeply interested in everything related to PHP performance, scaling, and operations, which is why I founded Tideways - a software for monitoring, profiling and exception tracking PHP applications. This is also why i wanted to start this podcast with Matthew.

    Matthew: I'm an independent software engineer and systems administrator, with a passion for performance and security. I've been developing web-based software and administering Linux servers since around 1999.

    Benjamin: In season one, we'll have ten episodes, covering, ten different topics with guests who are extremely knowledgeable on each subject. We're planning to talk about garbage collection, profiling, background processes, shared-nothing architecture, timeouts, limits, and retries — and a lot more.

    That’s a pretty broad range of topics, so we’re confident there'll be something for you, no matter your skill level or what you’re working on at the moment.

    Matthew: We're planning to launch at the end of October, but we don't have a firm launch date as yet. However, if you subscribe to the podcast at undercover-elephpant.com, and follow us on Twitter, we’re @Undercover_PHP (https://undercover-elephpant.com), you'll know when the first episode's about to drop.

    If you're interested in all these topics, in increasing the performance of your PHP applications, then join us from the end of October, for The Undercover ElePHPant.