Re^2: Perl and Apache 1.3

Well, I guess I should specifically say that these processes get larger only when they've got CPU activity associated. That would mean that more compiled code is being loaded into memory associated with the httpd process, right?

Also, the associated PDFs are not huge (max 10MB) and the scripts that generate our application are usually around half a MB, but we have one that's about 10MB.

Since we're talking a lot of Apache configuration, I'll pose a couple of related questions:

MaxRequestsPerChild, when reached, causes the httpd process to terminate and if the load is high enough, another httpd process will start up, correct?

Does anyone have any idea how long it would normally take to start up a new process? My boss seems to think that it's up to 20 seconds and that starting a new child is a VERY expensive operation.

This server is a fairly decent machine though: 3GHz Xeon Dual Core, 4GB. It runs both Apache and MySQL for a few hundred users, but from what I've read, people who know configuration can get away with much, MUCH less...

Comment on Re^2: Perl and Apache 1.3

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^3: Perl and Apache 1.3 by Heffstar (Acolyte) on Nov 24, 2009 at 16:52 UTC
Basically wrapping this one up should anyone read this thread down the road... I've set the above settings to the following: MinSpareServers 5 MaxSpareServers 10 StartServers 8 MaxRequestsPerChild 2500 MaxClients 100 The biggest change that I made was turning KeepAlive off. What I found was that with KeepAlive turned on, it would have to reach MaxKeepAliveRequests multiplied by MaxRequestsPerChild (2000 * 10000 = 20,000,000) prior to killing off the child process and releasing the memory associated. Just a tad high. Set at 2500, my process size reaches ~100MB then will die off. Also, by turning KeepAlive off, it allowed the server process to immediately serve another client rather than sit around waiting for "KeepAliveTimeout" seconds. Thanks for the help monks!	[reply]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re^3: Perl and Apache 1.3
by Heffstar (Acolyte) on Nov 24, 2009 at 16:52 UTC

Basically wrapping this one up should anyone read this thread down the road...

I've set the above settings to the following:
MinSpareServers 5
MaxSpareServers 10
StartServers 8
MaxRequestsPerChild 2500
MaxClients 100

The biggest change that I made was turning KeepAlive off. What I found was that with KeepAlive turned on, it would have to reach MaxKeepAliveRequests multiplied by MaxRequestsPerChild (2000 * 10000 = 20,000,000) prior to killing off the child process and releasing the memory associated. Just a tad high. Set at 2500, my process size reaches ~100MB then will die off.

Also, by turning KeepAlive off, it allowed the server process to immediately serve another client rather than sit around waiting for "KeepAliveTimeout" seconds.

Thanks for the help monks!

[reply]