Support for Linux kernel AIO (Asynchronous I/O) has been included in the version 2.6. By enabling Lighttpd AIO you can gain good performance gain. But what is AIO?
Usually your application needs to wait till I/O call is finished. AIO enables even a single application thread to overlap I/O operations with other processing, by providing an interface for submitting one or more I/O requests in one system call without waiting for completion, and a separate interface to reap completed I/O operations associated with a given completion group (see Linux AIO home page for more details).
Lighttpd 1.5.x support AIO. First make sure you have libaio installed:
# yum install libaio-devel
Next grab lighttpd source code and compile with --with-linux-aio option:
# ./configure --with-openssl --with-linux-aio
Install lighttpd
# make; make install
Create configuration file and put following directive in lighttpd.conf file:
server.network-backend = "linux-aio-sendfile"
Save and close the file. Restart lighttpd:
# /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart
Use httpd_load / ab command Performance Benchmarks a Web server.
Please note that I’ve tested above instructions on Redhat Enterprise Linux 4/5 and Cent OS.
You should follow me on twitter here or grab rss feed to keep track of new changes.
Featured Articles:
- 30 Handy Bash Shell Aliases For Linux / Unix / Mac OS X
- Top 30 Nmap Command Examples For Sys/Network Admins
- 25 PHP Security Best Practices For Sys Admins
- 20 Linux System Monitoring Tools Every SysAdmin Should Know
- 20 Linux Server Hardening Security Tips
- Linux: 20 Iptables Examples For New SysAdmins
- Top 20 OpenSSH Server Best Security Practices
- Top 20 Nginx WebServer Best Security Practices
- 20 Examples: Make Sure Unix / Linux Configuration Files Are Free From Syntax Errors
- 15 Greatest Open Source Terminal Applications Of 2012

- My 10 UNIX Command Line Mistakes
- Top 10 Open Source Web-Based Project Management Software
- Top 5 Email Client For Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows Users
- The Novice Guide To Buying A Linux Laptop













{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
what are your result (gain) with this feateures ?
Is it possible to do the same thing on Ubuntu? Currently using lighttpd 1.4.19
Yes, it should work under Ubuntu but you need Lighttpd 1.5.x version.