Apache 2.0 to many processes

[Bluebanshee01]

Hi there,
I have run into a problem. I am running Apache 2.0 and tomcat 5 under RedHad As 3.0. I have recently run into a problem with the apache part of it. At least I think it is the apache part of it. What is happening is that every so often there will all of a sudden be several hundred apache processes running and then my server becomes un responsive. Web sites won't come up. When I do a ps -ef there are hundreds of them running. What causes this and how do I fix it? Here is my limits part of my httpd.conf. I would appreciate any help any of you that are smarter than me could send my way with this problem. Thanks for the help.

<IfModule prefork.c>
StartServers 8
MinSpareServers 5
MaxSpareServers 20
ServerLimit 16
MaxClients 150
MaxRequestsPerChild 1000
</IfModule>

<IfModule worker.c>
StartServers 2
ServerLimit 16
MaxClients 150
MinSpareThreads 25
MaxSpareThreads 75
ThreadsPerChild 25
MaxRequestsPerChild 0
</IfModule>

 

[ericbrunson]

Threads show up like individual processes on a linux box, but you don't say what OS you're running. Try reducing MaxClients and the ThreadsPerChild.

But I think the problem sounds more systemic to the application than the actual web server. Why are all these requests backing up? Is it actually being caused because the app server becomes unresponsive first?

 

[Bluebanshee01]

Thank you
Yes I am running RedHat AS 3.0. It seems like the apache server is getting backred up after 150 or so requests. I have tried chenging the maxclients value, but no luck. How do you actually make apache accept more than 150 threads (processes)?

Thanks again.