Chapter 14. Apache HTTP Server

191

Your server's default

MinSpareServers

is

5

; your server's default

MaxSpareServers

is

20

. These

default settings should be appropriate in most situations. You should not increase the

MinSpare 

Servers

to a large number. Doing so will create a heavy processing load on your server even when

traffic is light.

14.5.10.

StartServers

StartServers

sets how many server processes are created upon startup. Since your Web server

dynamically kills and creates server processes based on traffic load, you will not need to change this

parameter. Your Web server is set to start eight server processes at startup.

14.5.11.

MaxClients

MaxClients

sets a limit on the total number of server processes, or simultaneously connected clients,

that can run at one time. You should keep

MaxClients

at a high number (your server's default is set

to 150), because no one else will be allowed to connect once that number of simultaneously connected

clients is reached. You can not set

MaxClients

to higher than 256 without recompiling Apache. The

main reason for having

MaxClients

is to keep a runaway Web server from crashing your operating

system.

14.5.12.

MaxRequestsPerChild

MaxRequestsPerChild

sets the total number of requests each child server process serves before

the child dies. The main reason for setting

MaxRequestsPerChild

is to avoid long lived process

induced memory leaks. The default

MaxRequestsPerChild

for your server is

1000

.

14.5.13.

Listen

The

Listen

command identifies the ports on which your Web server will accept incoming requests.

Your Web server is set to listen to port 80 for non secure Web communications and (in the virtual host

tags that define the secure server) to port 443 for secure Web communications.

If you set the Apache HTTP Server to listen to a port under 1024, you must be root to start it. For port

1024 and above,

httpd

can be started as a regular user.

Listen

can also be used to specify particular IP addresses over which the server will accept connec 

tions.

14.5.14.

Include

Include

allows other configuration files to be included at runtime.

The path to these configuration files can be absolute or relative to the

ServerRoot

.

Important

In order for the server to use individually packaged modules, such as mod_ssl, mod_perl, and php,

the following directive must be in Section 1: Global Environment of http.conf:

Include conf.d/*.conf