Optimizing Apache for 1,000,000 views per day

[Ante Karamatic]

On Mon, 7 Jul 2008 17:15:53 -0400
"Brett Alton" <brett.jr.alton at gmail.com> wrote:

> So I ask, how are the default Apache settings in Ubuntu/Debian for
> handling 1,000,000 views per day?

There's no one magic set of configs that would solve all problems. If
you are sysadmin of a 1000000hpd site, you should really understand all
those settings in apache and work together with web devs. Of course,
you should know all sysinfo of your server(s). Things you shouldn't do:

- set up to high 'StartServers', 'MaxClients', 'MinSpareServers' - you
don't want start swapping at *any* time
- use prefork just for static web pages
- don't do SymlinksIfOwnerMatch - either do FollowSymlinks or don't do
it at all
- brag about 1000000hpd - instead, you should lower it with smart
configuration and web coding
- lots of other things...

Work with you web devs. There are a lot of webpages that, without any
sane reason, have multiple CSS includes - each include is additional
HTTP connection (and one hpd). Use Expire if you have smart content
management.

Do tests with siege and ab. Optimize according to test results, not by
some examples on the Internet.

> Now, I've never had a problem with Debian/Ubuntu and the default
> Apache configuration, and I assume this person isn't using
> Debian/Ubuntu because they stated 'httpd.conf' instead of
> 'apache2.conf', but I figured this would be a good discussion for this
> mail list.... go! =)

If you understand that there is no 'one conf to rule the world', you'll
come to conclusion that Debian/Ubuntu default configuration doesn't
work for everybody all the time.

Never edit apache.conf, put you configuration
into /etc/apache2/conf.d/. Read:

http://ivoks.blogspot.com/2008/06/ubuntu-server-insight-custom.html