---
title: lesterchan.net on HHVM
date: 2015-04-28 09:39:33
permalink: https://lesterchan.net/blog/2015/04/28/lesterchan-net-on-hhvm/
author: Lester Chan
excerpt: "After moving to nginx and php-fpm, my next step was running HHVM with php-fpm as a fallback. HHVM is an open-source virtual machine for executing Hack and PHP programs, using just-in-time compilation for superior performance while keeping PHP's development flexibility."
categories:
  - Site
tags:
  - HHVM
  - lesterchan.net
---

After the move to [nginx/php-fpm](https://lesterchan.net/blog/2015/03/20/lesterchan-net-on-nginxphp-fpm-mariadb/), the next natural course of action is to move to HHVM and php-fpm as a fallback.

**What is HHVM?**

> [HHVM](https://hhvm.com/) is an open-source virtual machine designed for executing programs written in Hack and PHP. HHVM uses a just-in-time (JIT) compilation approach to achieve superior performance while maintaining the development flexibility that PHP provides. HHVM is developed by Facebook.

As a result my response time drop by another 400ms to about 1,500ms from 1,900ms as shown in the screenshot below.

[![lesterchan.net Response Times (HHVM)](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7686/17045521047_68ee86a5a3_c.jpg "lesterchan.net Response Times (HHVM)")](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7686/17045521047_2776f26ed6_o.png "lesterchan.net Response Times (HHVM)")

**Installing HHVM**

```
$ apt-get install software-properties-common
$ apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 0x5a16e7281be7a449
$ add-apt-repository 'deb http://dl.hhvm.com/ubuntu trusty main'
$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install hhvm
```

**nginx’s HHVM config (hhvm.conf)**

```nginx

location ~ \.(hh|php)$ {
    proxy_intercept_errors on;
    error_page 502 = @fallback;

    try_files $uri =404;
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
    if (!-f $document_root$fastcgi_script_name) {
        return 404;
    }

    fastcgi_keep_conn on;

    include fastcgi_params;

    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/hhvm/server.sock;
}
location @fallback {
    try_files $uri =404;
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
    if (!-f $document_root$fastcgi_script_name) {
        return 404;
    }

    include fastcgi_params;

    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
}

```

## HHVM config (server.ini)

I am running HHVM through a file socket. ```
hhvm.server.type = fastcgi
hhvm.server.file_socket=/var/run/hhvm/server.sock
```

Previously, I can’t install HHVM because my VM is on the 32bit version of Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (Trusty Tahr). HHVM only supports 64bit machines.