[olug] Apache MaxClients and monitoring connections.

Lane Roberts roberts.lane at gmail.com
Tue Oct 5 21:17:46 UTC 2010


I believe mod_status is what you're looking for:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_status.html

It gives more information than the `ps` route -- the number of worker
serving requests, the number of idle workers, the status of each worker, the
number of requests that worker has performed and the total number of bytes
served by the worker, total number of accesses and byte count served, and so
on.

I played with it a little bit a few months ago, but I didn't really have a
use-case for it. Actually, I just got done moving my personal sites to nginx
- it's pretty slick.

Like Ben said, I've never seen apache actually stop an idle process. From
reading the comments in the config file, it looks like it should, but...

/lwr

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 4:03 PM, Obi-Wan <obiwan at jedi.com> wrote:
>
> >> I'm working on sizing an Apache installation using the MaxClients
parameter
> >> to limit connections before it impact other shared services on this
system.
> >>  The Apache system will log when the MaxClients is hit, but I can't
> >> determine how to get Apache to tell me how many clients it's currently
> >> running.  (I'm hoping to log these numbers during their work-day and
help
> >> them determine a good size that balances responsiveness with the other
tasks
> >> on the system.)
> >>
> >> Is there a debug or logging option I'm missing?
> >
> > # ps aux | grep apache
>
> Or more specifically (using specifics for my install),
>
> # ps aux | grep /usr/sbin/apache2 | grep -c www-data
> 15
>
> However, it's my impression that Apache doesn't ever actually terminate
> an idle instance.  It starts them when necessary to field incoming
> requests (subject to MaxClients), but when said request has been handled,
> it leaves the instance running to save overhead the next time a request
> comes in.  I'm not aware of any way to tell how many instances are
> concurrently busy.  I haven't looked in a long time, but there may be
> a way to tell idle instances to die after some period of inactivity.
>
> --
> Ben "Obi-Wan" Hollingsworth                             obiwan at jedi.com
>   The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the
>     Giver of all good things, so if I stand, let me stand on the
>       promise that You will pull me through.  -- Rich Mullins
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