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Configuring Apache for Maximum Performance

howtoforge.com — Apache server performance can be improved by adding additional hardware resources such as RAM, faster CPU etc. But, most of the time, the same result can be achieved by custom configuration of the server. This article looks into getting maximum performance out of Apache with the existing hardware resources, specifically on the Linux systems.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 15, 2006

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  • goatrandy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Its a good article, but one thing they dont mention is probably the most important thing. Don't use Apache if you don't NEED its feature set. There are so many web pages out there that are either static, or should be, that could be served up by a 'tiny' web server like boa soo much more efficiently.

    In my tests my (fully tweaked) Apache install could service about 1,000 simultaneous users a static page before choking, and handing out error messages like candy. An equivalent Boa config, serving the same content, could handle more than 15,000 concurrent requests.

    Boa, for those of you who've never heard of it:
    http://www.boa.org/
  • joshpeek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Check out lighttpd. Its a nice small and fast alternative web server.

    http://www.lighttpd.net/
  • carguy84, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I've been researching this recently and what I've found correlates with joshpeek. Seems lightTPD is hard to beat, especially if you don't need any advance featuresets available in Apache.

    Chip-
  • jrsims, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Yes, can someone please post a good article comparing LightTPD with Apache 2?

    This LightTPD thing intrigues me...
  • gaoshan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I ran tests of lighttpd versus Apache (latest versions of both) when running a content management system (Textpattern). Also used PHP 5.1.2 and MySQL 5 and ran these tests on both a Mac (dual G4-867mhz 1gb RAM) and Feodra Core 4 (PIII-733mhz, 128mb RAM). Note that I have tuned both Apache and MySQL for optimal results and I compiled PHP myself for best optimization. The testing consisted of running Apache Bench in various configurations.
    The basic result? Apache was either just as fast or slightly faster than lighttpd on either machine. Now this setup stresses dynamic pages and database access so, while static pages may be faster on lighttpd, my testing showed that if you run a dynamic setup you may as well use Apache.
  • jarva, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4dupe

    http://digg.com/linux_unix/Configuring_Apache_for_Maximum_Performance_2
  • goatrandy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Oh, and probably:

    http://digg.com/linux_unix/Configuring_Apache_for_Maximum_Performance

    :)

    Dont worry though. Next week we'll have:
    http://digg.com/linux_unix/Configuring_Apache_for_Maximum_Performance_4
  • Greg-J, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3This is definitely a good read for any Apache user. I would like to see an unbiased, side-by-side apples-to-apples comparison of the top 10 HTTP servers though.
  • bizarretist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Good comments on Apache alternatives. It's a huge and complex server, and unnecessary for most sites.

    I'd like to support a small and secure webserver, publicfile. It runs non-root, chroot, supports vhosts, etc. It's easy to modify and there are a number of available patches to get added functionality.

    Same author as qmail and djbdns.

    http://cr.yp.to/publicfile.html official site

    http://www.publicfile.org excellent patches + other goodies
  • brundlefly76, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The chances that someone developing a static website will need stripped-down performance more than any given Apache feature is ludicrous. Rather then reccommending Boa 'unless you need apache' - you should be recommending Apache 'unless you need Boa performance'. And if you need Boa performance, you should probably go with an Apache array.




  • MacGyver, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1seriously hausmasta, how did you miss the dupe? It has the same exact description as your submission.
  • alienz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Use http://squid.org and proper HTTP Headers and you'll experience a huge improvement in speed.
  • soleblazer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1wow, seems like he needs to follow his own advice
  • peerk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Another good alternative if you don't need all of what apache offers is thttpd.

    http://www.acme.com/software/thttpd/
  • altjeringa, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Nothing new but alot of people need to read this. so +digg
  • salaamul, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0yes it's different than all apache performance related articles that I've read.. Dugg!

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