[ale] apache/linux performance tuning [long]

[Dow Hurst]

Have you tried a request from a box inside the NAT/firewall to eliminate
that variable?  Set up a test from inside the firewall and compare the
speed with the numbers from outside the firewall.  Just so you don't
tweak in the wrong place first.  You may wish to point out the cost and
security aspects of your setup over the parent company's as ammunition. 
Performance is meaningless when hacked, cracked, and smashed.  You would
think that NAT/iptables, since kernel based, would be orders of
magnitude faster than apache disk reads and writes.  Also, do you have
enough apache child processes running to handle the load?  SGI has
performance tuned apache so here is the httpd.conf from that:


Aslan 57% cat highperformance.conf
# Ha, you're reading this config file looking for the easy way out!
# "how do I make my apache server go really really fast??"
# Well you could start by reading the
htdocs/manual/misc/perf-tuning.html
# page.  But, we'll give you a head start.
#
# This config file is small, it is probably not what you'd expect on a
# full featured internet webserver with multiple users.  But it's
# probably a good starting point for any folks interested in testing
# performance.
#
# To run this config you'll need to use something like:
#     httpd -f @@ServerRoot@@/conf/highperformance.conf

Port 80
ServerRoot @@ServerRoot@@
DocumentRoot @@ServerRoot@@/htdocs
MaxClients 150
StartServers 5
MinSpareServers 5
MaxSpareServers 10
# Assume no memory leaks at all
MaxRequestsPerChild 0

# this is a True Config File
# see http://www.apache.org/info/three-config-files.html
ResourceConfig /dev/null
AccessConfig /dev/null

# it's always nice to know the server has started
ErrorLog logs/error_log

# Some benchmarks require logging, which is a good requirement. 
Uncomment
# this if you need logging.
#TransferLog logs/access_log

# Disable symlink protection and htaccess files, they chew far too much.
<Directory />
    AllowOverride none
    Options FollowSymLinks
    # If this was a real internet server you'd probably want to
    # uncomment these:
    #order deny,allow
    #deny from all
</Directory>

# If this was a real internet server you'd probably want to uncomment
this:
#<Directory "@@ServerRoot@@/htdocs">
#    order allow,deny
#    allow from all
#</Directory>

# OK that's enough hints.  Read the documentation if you want more.



Hope that helps, 
Dow











 djinn wrote:
> 
> Another weird question for you guys in ale land...
> 
> <background>
> My company is in a rather bitter struggle with the parent company of our
> main client for control of their web site.  Their parent company bought
> into Keynote to compare the site we host with ones they (parent company)
> hosts...and (shock, surprise) we measure up very poorly.
> 
> I had an interesting discussion with a non-sales Keynote person, looking
> at the pretty charts and graphs they provide, and it seems that our
> network performance is about the same as our Sworn Enemy's, but the time
> from the first GET request to the delivery is really laggy.  In other
> words, we ping just fine but god forbid you request something of the web
> server.
> </background>
> 
> Our setup may be partially at fault...there's a router in front and then
> a firewall/NAT box hiding the web server.  The NAT machine handles
> firewalling, NAT, and stateful inspection of packets.  The web server
> isn't terribly heavily hit...less than 600,000 actual requests per day,
> most between 8 and 8pm EST.
> 
> All of these machines are running a very stripped RH 7.1. The web server
> is a PIII 1ghz with 1GB RAM.  The NAT machine is an AMD 550 with 512 MB
> RAM.  The router is an AMD 450 with 512MB RAM.  The read/write speed
> (we're talking about laggy GET requests now) shouldn't be at
> fault...they're 10,000RPM SCSI drives.  I'm using ext2, if that makes
> any difference.
> 
> I really don't know what to do.  My pride is hurting pretty badly
> because it *appears* (and I know about lies, damned lies, and
> statistics) that MSIE on NT4.0 is serving up pages faster than my linux
> box with apache!
> 
> Any pointers to performance tuning (apache or linux), suggestions on
> what could be wrong...please help.  Could it be that NAT/stateful
> inspection is causing bottlenecks on the return?  Could it be that I
> need to tune apache somehow? Could it be resource limits for the
> non-root user Apache is running?
> 
> TIA
> jenn
> --
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__________________________________________________________
Dow Hurst                   Office: 770-499-3428
Systems Support Specialist  Fax:    770-423-6744
1000 Chastain Rd.
Chemistry Department SC428  Email:dhurst at kennesaw.edu
Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com
Kennesaw, GA 30144
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