eZ Publish 5 being built on top of Symfony 2, it uses standard HTTP cache headers. By default the Symfony 2 reverse proxy, written in PHP, is used to handle cache, but it can be easily replaced with any other reverse proxy like Varnish.

Configure Varnish

Provided VCL example is given for Varnish 3.x only.

It needs Varnish Curl Vmod to be installed.

The first thing is to configure Varnish to advertise ESI usage and to activate cache invalidation and Context aware HTTP cache.

# Varnish 3.x - eZ Publish 5 - Complete VCL
 
import curl;
 
# Our Backend - We assume that eZ Publish Web server listens on port 80
backend ezpublish {
    .host = "127.0.0.1";
    .port = "80";
}
 
# ACL for purgers - based on IP.
# Provide here IP addresses that are allowed to send PURGE requests.
# PURGE requests will be sent by the backend. It is not a good idea to allow end-users to invalidate caches.
acl purgers {
    "127.0.0.1";
    "192.168.0.0"/16;
}
 
# Called at the beginning of a request, after the complete request has been received
sub vcl_recv {
 
    # Set the backend
    set req.backend = ezpublish;
 
    # Advertise ESI support to Symfony
    set req.http.Surrogate-Capability = "abc=ESI/1.0";
 
    # Add a unique header containing the client address (only for master request)
    # Please note that /_fragment URI can change in Symfony configuration
    if (!req.url ~ "^/_fragment") {
        if (req.http.x-forwarded-for) {
            set req.http.X-Forwarded-For = req.http.X-Forwarded-For + ", " + client.ip;
        } else {
            set req.http.X-Forwarded-For = client.ip;
        }
    }
 
    # Trigger purge if needed.
    call ez_purge;
 
    # Normalize the Accept-Encoding headers
    if (req.http.Accept-Encoding) {
        if (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "gzip") {
            set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "gzip";
        } elsif (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "deflate") {
            set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "deflate";
        } else {
            unset req.http.Accept-Encoding;
        }
    }
 
    # Don't cache Authenticate & Authorization
    if (req.http.Authenticate || req.http.Authorization) {
        return(pass);
    }
 
    # Don't cache requests other than GET and HEAD.
    if (req.request != "GET" && req.request != "HEAD") {
        return (pass);
    }
 
    # Do a standard lookup on assets
    # Note that file extension list below is not extensive, so consider completing it to fit your needs.
    if (req.request == "GET" && req.url ~ "\.(css|js|gif|jpe?g|bmp|png|tiff?|ico|img|tga|wmf|svg|swf|ico|mp3|mp4|m4a|ogg|mov|avi|wmv|zip|gz|pdf|ttf|eot|wof)$") {
        return (lookup);
    }

    # Retrieve client user hash and add it to the forwarded request.
    call ez_user_hash;

    # If it passes all these tests, do a lookup anyway;
    return (lookup);
}
 
# Called when the requested object has been retrieved from the backend
sub vcl_fetch {
 
    # Optimize to only parse the Response contents from Symfony
    if (beresp.http.Surrogate-Control ~ "ESI/1.0") {
        unset beresp.http.Surrogate-Control;
        set beresp.do_esi = true;
    }
 
    # Don't cache response with Set-Cookie
    if ( beresp.http.Set-Cookie ) {
        set beresp.ttl = 0s;
        return (hit_for_pass);
    }
 
    # Respect the Cache-Control=private header from the backend
    if (beresp.http.Cache-Control ~ "private") {
        set beresp.ttl = 0s;
        return (hit_for_pass);
    }
 
    return (deliver);
}

# Handle purge
# Only works with "multiple_http" purge method
sub ez_purge {

    # Handle purge
    # Only works with "multiple_http" purge method
    if (req.request == "PURGE") {
        if (!client.ip ~ purgers) {
            error 405 "Method not allowed";
        }
 
        if ( req.http.X-Location-Id == "*" ) {
            # Purge all locations
            ban( "obj.http.X-Location-Id ~ ^[0-9]+$" );
            error 200 "Purge all locations done.";
        } elseif ( req.http.X-Location-Id ) {
            # Purge location by its locationId
            ban( "obj.http.X-Location-Id == " + req.http.X-Location-Id );
            error 200 "Purge of content connected to the location id(" + req.http.X-Location-Id + ") done.";
        }
    }
}

# Sub-routine to get client user hash, for context-aware HTTP cache.
# Don't forget to correctly set the backend host for the Curl sub-request.
sub ez_user_hash {

    if (req.request == "GET") {
        # Pre-authenticate request to get shared cache, even when authenticated
        if (req.http.Cookie !~ "is_logged_in=" ) {
            # User doesn't have "is_logged_in" cookie => Set a hardcoded anonymous hash
            set req.http.X-User-Hash = "38015b703d82206ebc01d17a39c727e5";
        } else {
            # User is authenticated => fetch user hash
            curl.header_add("X-HTTP-Override: AUTHENTICATE");
            curl.header_add("Accept: application/vnd.ez.UserHash+text");
            curl.header_add("Cookie: " + req.http.Cookie);
            # Customize with real backend host
            # E.g. curl.get("http://www.metalfrance.net");
            curl.get("http://" + req.http.host + "/");
            if (curl.status() == 200) {
                set req.http.X-User-Hash = curl.header("X-User-Hash");
            }
        }
    }
}

You can of course add additional rules if you need.

Configure eZ Publish

Update your Virtual Host

The front controller can now be altered with environment variables, without the need to modify index.php.

By default your front controller (index.php) uses the built-in reverse proxy, EzPublishCache. In order to use Varnish, you need to deactivate it by commenting the line where EzPublishCache is instantiated:

<VirthualHost *:80>
    # Configure your VirtualHost with rewrite rules and stuff
 
    # Force front controller NOT to use built-in reverse proxy.
    SetEnv USE_HTTP_CACHE 0
</VirtualHost>

 

Update YML configuration

ezpublish:
    http_cache:
        # Use multiple_http method for purging content
        purge_type: multiple_http
 
    system:
        # Assuming that my_siteaccess_group your frontend AND backend siteaccesses
        my_siteaccess_group:
            http_cache:
                # Fill in your Varnish server(s) address(es).
                purge_servers: [http://my.varnish.server:6081]

Et voilà !