httpd – Internetblog.org.uk

Apache HTTP Server Optimization: Part 3

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:11:38 +0000

StartServers

You have already configured Apache to control the number of child processes to keep running. This directive will tell Apache how many to start initially when your server first boots. Depending on the level of traffic you expect to get, this number may be low or high. For general purposes, 5 should be sufficient.

StartServers 5

Timeout

This controls the amount of time Apache waits to do a number of tasks. For example, it controls how long it waits for a GET request (i.e. for someone to download a page or images) and also how long it will allow a POST request (i.e. when someone is sending something on a form). The default is 300, but you can lower it to something like 150 to help reduce some server strain when it is waiting on failed attempts and also help prevent DoS attacks on PHP scripts like message forums. Do not set it lower than 90, however, as this may cause some of your site visitors to get timeout errors on working content.

Timeout 150

Once you have made all of the changes you want to make to your Apache configuration file (httpd.conf), you need to restart Apache:

service httpd restart
or
/etc/init.d/httpd restart

These tips are not the only ones you can use to optimize your Apache installation, but they should help you get a head start.

The sysconfig directory in Redhat-based Linux

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:23:30 +0000

Redhat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, and Centos have a convenient directory called “sysconfig”. It is located under the main /etc directory and contains many of the frequently-used configuration files necessary to operate a server. Often the configuration files are for command line options or very specific settings rather than the complete settings for a particular application.

For example, the httpd file under sysconfig is the configuration for the httpd server rather than Apache as a whole. In it you can set startup options and command flags. Other configuration files include crond (for configuring the crontab frequency), syslog (which configures the system log rotation), and spamassassin (setup for the spam filtering service).

One of the most important folders in sysconfig is “networking“. This is where a user sets up network devices, and devices that are automatically setup appear here as well. You would only need to configure this file if you were running a locally housed server. If your server is remote, this will never need to be changed and attempting to change it could cause you to lose the ability to access the server at all. I recommend browsing through the complete list of files in /etc/sysconfig and at least becoming aware of them, in case you need one of them in the future.