ZendOptimizer installation is very short and can be done with the following steps:

1.)  Get the latest release from Zend, available file format is tar.gz (ex:  ZendOptimizer-3.3.0a-linux-glibc23-x86_64.tar.gz).

2.)  Extract the tarball at /usr/local/src/.

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cd /usr/local/src/
tar xzpf ZendOptimizer-3.3.0a-linux-glibc23-x86_64.tar.gz

3.)  Go to the extracted Zend directory and run the install script to launch Zend Optimizer installer.  Follow instructions.

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cd ZendOptimizer-3.3.0a-linux-glibc23-x86_64/
./install

After the installation most likely Apache will not start even if ZendOptimizer said that it restarted successfully, and you will get this error if you check PHP version (php -v):

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PHP Fatal error:  [ionCube Loader] The Loader must appear as the first entry in the php.ini file in Unknown on line 0

The usual scenario is that the ZendOptimizer includes were added at the end of php.ini file while the IonCube on the include directory at /etc/php.d/ioncube-loader.ini.

You have two options to fix the issue:

Option 1.  Place both of the IonCube and ZendOptimizer includes in php.ini file.

Move the contents of /etc/php.d/ioncube-loader.ini and put it into /etc/php.ini, above the ZendOptimizer lines.  Sample code:

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zend_extension=/usr/lib64/php4/php_ioncube_loader_lin_4.3_x86_64.so

[Zend]
zend_extension_manager.optimizer=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer-3.3.0
zend_extension_manager.optimizer_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer_TS-3.3.0
zend_optimizer.version=3.3.0a
zend_extension=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager.so
zend_extension_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager_TS.so

Restart Apache ( /etc/init.d/httpd restart ).

Option 2.  Place the ZendOptimizer includes on PHP’s include directory.

Create a .ini file (ex: zendoptimizer.ini) inside PHP’s include directory at /etc/php.d/, and move the ZendOptimizer lines (sample below) from /etc/php.ini.

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[Zend]
zend_extension_manager.optimizer=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer-3.3.0
zend_extension_manager.optimizer_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/Optimizer_TS-3.3.0
zend_optimizer.version=3.3.0a
zend_extension=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager.so
zend_extension_ts=/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager_TS.so

PHP includes are loaded in alphabetical order so be sure to name your ZendOptimizer include file like zendoptimizer.ini so that this will be loaded after ioncube-loader.ini.

Restart Apache ( /etc/init.d/httpd restart ).