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quentin submitted a new Article:
Improve performance by serving static files with a lightweight HTTP server
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Improve performance by serving static files with a lightweight HTTP server
This article is of interest to you if:
- You run your site(s) on a dedicated server.
- You run a Un*x system.
- You run Apache as your HTTP server.
- You have a lot of traffic, are experiencing performance issues, or anticipating them.
In this article I will explain how to install Mathopd as a static file/image serving HTTP server, and why it will be beneficial.
Understanding Apache's Forking system
For you to understand why what we are going to do is useful, it is first necessary that you understand (from a high level) how apache works.
Basically, Apache handles a request with a process (known as a child). Each simultaneous request is handled by a different process. Therefore, the more simultaneous connections to your server are open, the more child processes Apache will create to handle these connections.
This is why, when you run the command top (or ps), you can see a number of httpd processes running on your server:
If you look into your apache's configuration file (httpd.conf), a number of parameters allow you to manipulate the way this process generation works:
MaxClients defines the max number of child processes that can be created by apache (hence the amx number of simultaneous requests served).
StartServers defines the number of processes that are created by default when apache is started.
Apache doesn't wait for incoming requests to create the processes that will treat them. This creation process takes time, and this would result in bad response times. Instead, it creates the processes in advance, and keeps them running waiting for a new connection. The variables MinSpareServers and MaxSpareServers define the min and max numbers of processes that must be created and waiting for incoming connections.
So the basic life of a child process is:
1) Apache creates the child process because there are less than MinSpareServers waiting for connections.
2) The child process waits for a connection.
3) A connection is made. The child process answers the request.
4) The child process goes back to the wait status to serve a new request.
Processes can be deleted for multiple reasons, for example because there are more than MaxSpareServers waiting, or more than MaxRequestsPerChild requests were already served by this process.
KeepAlive is a mechanism implemented in apache (and many...
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