[mod_python] need help solving some performance issues

> 
> Do you know what those processes are doing when they suck up the cpu?
> 
> Is it something that you could offload to another machine?
> 
> Obviously throwing more hardware at the problem can work but it sounds like
> your setup right now doesnt allow for a ton of movement you can do in that 
> area.
> 
> Re-working the entire thing is one option but you might try to skate by
> before doing that by seeing if you can move just the problem areas.

So far my technique for finding out what these processes are doing is to
observe top, copy the pid of a problem and then quickly switch over to apache
server-status output, refresh and look for the pid.  I wish I knew a better
way...

The results of this un-scientific technique do not point to a particular area
of the site.  I do know that there are 3 directory-type scripts that get
hammered by the search engines.  The site has over 400,000 records in google
and all of these pages are dynamically generated by these scripts.

I suppose I could just do some mod_proxy stuff to redirect some of these...
Not a bad idea if I could do it without affecting google rank (i.e. no visible
redirecting).  But this is still adding additional hardware.  If adding a
dual cpu system would buy me the same performance boost I could end of life
the current machine and my monthly fees would be less than 2 single cpu
machines.  Not that the fees are a big concern-- mostly I am interested in
the simplest setup.  1 machine and no mod_proxy seems simpler.

I have no experience with dual cpu machines though-- this is part of my
concern.  I manage 6 production FreeBSD servers but they are all single cpu
systems.  If apache is in prefork mode 2 cpus is just extra processing power
right?!?

ch