Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : should i configure my apache settings?

[moflow]

Hello I run site that gets 3,000,000 hits per month.
I run a Celeron 1.7 ghz with 512 mb ram.
My memory keeps going down fast and when i check the processes i see the following:

root      1230  0.0  1.4 80128 7108 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1234  0.1  1.4 80344 7584 ?        S    12:20   0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1235  0.0  1.4 80356 7560 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1236  0.1  1.5 80376 7608 ?        S    12:20   0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1237  0.0  1.4 80316 7392 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1238  0.1  1.5 80400 7632 ?        R    12:20   0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1239  0.1  1.5 80364 7592 ?        S    12:20   0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1240  0.0  1.4 80348 7564 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1241  0.0  1.4 80340 7568 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1260  0.1  1.5 80400 7628 ?        S    12:20   0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1263  0.0  1.4 80332 7552 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1264  0.0  1.4 80352 7572 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1267  0.1  1.4 80336 7572 ?        S    12:20   0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1268  0.0  1.4 80352 7576 ?        S    12:20   0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1269  0.1  1.5 80368 7604 ?        S    12:20   0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1270  0.0  1.4 80308 7528 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
psaadm    1276  0.0  0.6  5968 3224 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/https
psaadm    1277  0.0  0.6  5968 3224 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/https
psaadm    1278  0.0  0.6  5968 3224 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/https
psaadm    1279  0.0  0.6  5968 3224 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/https
psaadm    1280  0.0  0.6  5968 3224 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/https
apache    1281  0.1  1.5 80384 7620 ?        S    12:20   0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1282  0.0  1.4 80308 7524 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1283  0.0  1.4 80288 7364 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1284  0.1  1.5 80400 7628 ?        S    12:20   0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1285  0.0  1.4 80320 7388 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1286  0.0  1.5 80384 7596 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1287  0.0  1.5 80376 7604 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS
apache    1288  0.0  1.5 80376 7604 ?        S    12:20   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -DHAVE_ACCESS

should i configure my apache settings?

[CLucich]

That's not eating your memory. All those Apache processes are only using 80mb combined not per process. Apache itself rarely causes memory problems. It's more likely that you have a rogue CGI or PHP script that isn't releasing resources properly.

[moflow]

I don't have any php scripts, and i only use like 3 cgi scripts that are small and exit properly.

[CLucich]

How are you checking your memory usage?

[moflow]

using the top command from shell

[moflow]

since 3 million hits a month is kinda high, should i increase my MaxClients 150 to MaxClients 300 ? will that help?

[CLucich]

Changing the max clients will not affect your memory consumption, it'll simply allow your server to handle more concurrent connections.

The numbers in "top" do not accurately reflect how your system memory is being used. You should run "free -m" and check the "free" column on the buffers/cache line .. this is how much memory is available for applications.

Linux uses memory to cache disk I/O in order to increase filesystem performance. Since reading/writing to memory is 1,000 times faster than any hard drive, it makes sense to keep frequently accessed data in memory. However, if a process needs the memory that is used for caching disk I/O, the memory is immediately released and allocated to the applicatoin.

[moflow]

should i also leave change the current following :
MinSpareServers 5
MaxSpareServers 20

[CLucich]

I really don't think that has anything to do with it either. Leave it.