Apache modules: C module vs mod_wsgi python module - Performance

Question

Hi

A client of ours is asking us to implement a module in C in Apache webserver for performance reasons. This module should handle RESTful uri's, access a database and return results in json format. Many people here have recommended python mod_wsgi instead - but for simplicity of programming reasons. Can anyone tell me if there is a significant difference in performance between the mod_wsgi python solution vs. the Apache + C.module. Any anecdotes? Pointers to some study posted online?

Answer 1

This module should handle RESTful uri's, access a database and return results in json format.

That sounds like the bulk of the work is I/O bound so you will not get much of a performance boost by using C.

Here is the strategy I would recommend.

1. Implement in Python
2. After getting it done, profile the code to see if there are any CPU bottlenecks.
3. Implement just the bottleneck portions in C.