[mod_python] mod_python or apache scalability?

Alec Matusis wrote, at 10/01/2007 05:12 AM:

> This is the relevant part of httpd.conf: 
> 
> ServerLimit 300 
> # we are using prefork MPM 
> StartServers 10 
> MinSpareServers 5 
> MaxSpareServers 20 
> MaxClients 300 
> MaxRequestsPerChild 10000 
> MaxMemFree 2500 

It's not always wise to simply raise values on a system that's already 
overburdened. For example, setting a finite value of 10000 for 
MaxRequestsPerChild may still be too high to make a difference. 
Increasing the number of clients and servers may only make the problem 
worse.

I'd revert to the defaults, then start by changing only 
MaxRequestsPerChild to something smaller, like 100, to see if it has any 
effect at all. Putting a short lifespan on your child processes may help 
the symptoms enough to point the way to a cure. To get a proper control, 
be sure to stop/start apache, not use restart or graceful.