Multi-threaded cron jobs with Cron MT

cpliakas — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:40:11 +0000

PHP scripts typically run as a single build-up tear-down process. This is problematic when running batch operations, such as the Drupal cron run. For larger sites, cron will often time out or run out of memory thus failing to complete all maintenance tasks. Cron MT increases efficiency and reliability by utilizing PHP's "Process Control" extension available to Unix-like platforms. By forking the cron process a configurable number of times, Cron MT is able to execute each hook_cron() implementation in parallel allowing the system to distribute the load across its multiple CPUs.

Speaker bio:

Chris Pliakas is an Engineer and Systems Administrator at CommonPlaces e-Solutions, LLC located in Hampstead, New Hampshire and is the author of the Cron MT and Lucene API modules. He is an open source enthusiast who has been building Internet applications with Drupal for close to two years. Chris is a Zend certified PHP 5 Engineer, a certified MySQL 5 developer and administrator, and holds a Linux Professional Institute Level 1 certification. In future projects, Chris hopes to integrate the Zend Framework into Drupal and move bring the more advanced language constructs PHP 5 has to offer into the Drupal community.

DrupalConParis2009 - cron

Multi-threaded cron jobs with Cron MT