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If you’re looking to make your Laravel app faster and more efficient, Laravel Octane might be just what you need.
Laravel Octane is all about speed—it boosts performance by running your app on high-powered servers like Swoole and RoadRunner.
In this guide, we’ll break down what Laravel Octane is, why it matters, and how Laravel developers use it to scale applications. By the end, you’ll see how Octane can help your app handle more users, load faster, and make the most of your resources. Let’s dive in and unlock new performance levels for your Laravel app!
What is Laravel Octane?
Laravel Octane is an optimization package designed to run Laravel applications as long-running server processes. Unlike traditional PHP-FPM setups that initialize the framework with each request, Octane persists parts of the application in memory, significantly reducing response times and CPU usage.
Here are some benefits of using Laravel Octane:
- Improved Request Processing: By maintaining a persistent process, Octane removes the overhead of reinitializing the app.
- Concurrent Requests: Handles multiple requests simultaneously, especially with Swoole, which supports coroutines.
- Increased Throughput: Octane optimizes your app for handling increased traffic by reducing latency and boosting concurrency.
- Asynchronous Task Handling: Octane allows asynchronous processing of tasks like HTTP requests, I/O operations, etc.
Want to Boost Performance with Laravel Octane? We Can Help!
How to Install Laravel Octane?
To use Laravel Octane, make sure your application is running Laravel version 8.41 or higher. Refer to our guide on how to check the Laravel version to simplify things.
Install Octane via Composer:
Open your terminal in the Laravel project directory and run:
composer require laravel/octane
Run the Installation Command;
Once Octane is installed, you’ll need to configure it. Run the following command to start the installation process:
php artisan octane:install
This command will guide you through setting up Octane and choosing a server (either Swoole or RoadRunner). Each server has different strengths, which we’ll explore in the next section to help you decide the best fit for your needs.
Choosing Between Swoole and RoadRunner
During the installation of Laravel Octane, you’ll be prompted to choose between Swoole and RoadRunner. Each server has unique features that can impact how your application handles requests and manages resources, so choose based on your project’s requirements.
Swoole
- Swoole is a high-performance PHP server supporting native coroutines, async I/O, and WebSocket support.
- Ideal for applications that require asynchronous tasks, like WebSocket-based applications or I/O-intensive processes.
RoadRunner
- RoadRunner is a powerful, PHP application server written in Go, which also provides persistent workers.
- Great for handling HTTP requests and is generally easier to install on most systems than Swoole.
What to Choose:
- Choose Swoole for applications needing asynchronous processing, WebSockets, or advanced concurrency.
- Choose RoadRunner for general-purpose applications focused on efficient HTTP request handling.
Once you’ve selected a server, you can proceed to configure and run Laravel Octane.
Configuring and Running Octane
Once you have installed Laravel Octane, a configuration file config/octane.php will be added to your project. Here, you can fine-tune your application settings for optimal performance.
Starting the Octane Server
To start Laravel Octane, use one of the following commands, depending on the server you selected during installation:
- Start Swoole Server:
php artisan octane:start --server=swoole
- Start RoadRunner Server:
php artisan octane:start --server=roadrunner
This command launches the Octane server, allowing your application to begin handling requests more efficiently.
Octane Features to Consider for Enhanced Performance
Laravel Octane provides several built-in optimizations to improve your app’s responsiveness and scalability. Let’s explore some key optimizations.
Worker Reloading
When a request is processed, Laravel Octane does not automatically reset the application state between requests. Therefore, it’s essential to ensure that no state is carried over inadvertently from one request to the next.
Set automatic reloading to enable Octane to reset state:
'octane' => [
'max_requests' => 500, // Reload workers after 500 requests
],
Setting this option ensures that the state remains fresh and helps prevent memory leaks or unwanted state persistence.
Task Workers
Octane allows you to offload time-consuming tasks to background workers. This improves response time for users as these tasks run asynchronously.
Example:
Octane::concurrently([
fn () => $this->performTaskOne(),
fn () => $this->performTaskTwo(),
]);
This allows multiple tasks to run in parallel, reducing the time spent waiting for each to complete and making your application more responsive.
Octane Cache
Octane provides a built-in cache layer that you can use to store values in memory, perfect for values that are expensive to calculate or retrieve frequently:
Octane::cache()->put('key', 'value', 600); // Cache for 10 minutes
$value = Octane::cache()->get('key');
Using this cache can significantly reduce load times for high-frequency data retrievals and improve your application’s overall speed.
Benchmarking and Monitoring Performance
After configuring Octane, it’s essential to benchmark your application and monitor it under load.
Use Apache Benchmarking Tool:
Run load tests with Apache Bench (ab) to see improvements in request handling:
ab -n 1000 -c 100 http://127.0.0.1:8000/
This command will send 1,000 requests with a concurrency of 100, allowing you to measure how Octane handles high traffic.
Using Blackfire.io or NewRelic:
Tools like Blackfire and NewRelic are excellent for measuring performance. These tools help identify bottlenecks in your code, allowing you to further optimize your application.
Common Use Cases and Best Practices for Laravel Octane
Laravel Octane is well-suited to specific types of applications and use cases. Here are some scenarios and best practices to maximize its potential.
Common Use Cases:
- High-Traffic Applications: For applications with high request rates, such as news websites or e-commerce platforms.
- WebSocket Applications: Apps that require WebSocket, like real-time dashboards or chat applications.
- API Services: For Laravel RESTful APIs that need to serve large numbers of requests with low latency.
Best Practices
- Avoid Stateful Services: Since Laravel Octane is a persistent application, avoid storing request-specific state in global variables or service providers.
- Database Connections: Ensure your database connections are correctly configured to support long-running processes.
- Cache and Sessions: Use Octane’s cache or store sessions externally in Redis or Memcached to prevent issues with state persistence.
FAQs on Laravel Octane
Conclusion
Laravel Octane is a game-changer for making your app faster and ready for high traffic. By keeping your app in memory and allowing it to handle requests without reloading each time, Octane boosts performance and reduces response times significantly.
Whether you go with Swoole for its advanced async features or RoadRunner for smooth HTTP handling, Octane gives you the flexibility to choose what’s best for your app’s needs. With features like task workers, caching, and efficient request handling, Octane makes it easier to handle more users and deliver a better experience.
If you need further help with optimizing your Laravel application performance, hiring Laravel experts will be the best choice.
