Topic: Apache process size is ~300MB

[gtsongi]

Hello,

I was preparing to optimize my Apache configuration. While I was reading around I saw people mentioning Apache process sizes between 10 and 40 MB. When I've checked mine on the server I saw that they are at 300. Basically every running Apache process. What can cause this? Server and Apache specs are:
Server:
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2609 0 @ 2.40GHz, 2 cores
Real Memory: 8GB
Virtual Memory 2GB
OS: Ubuntu 14

Apache:
Version: 2.4.7

Enabled Apache modules:
access_compat
alias
auth_basic
auth_core
authn_file
authz_core
authz_host
authz_user
autoindex
cgi
deflate
dir
env
filter
mime
mpm_prefork
negotiation
php5
reqtimeout
rewrite
setenvif
socache_shmcb
ssl
status

Apache settings:
Timeout 300
KeepAlive On
MaxKeepAliveRequests 100
KeepAliveTimeout 5
StartServers 5
MinSpareServers 5
MaxSpareServers 10
MaxClients 150
MaxRequestsPerChild 0

Can any of these settings or modules cause the process size to increase so much?

[James Blond]

That is why I use event mpm and let PHP run over fcgid.

You can use https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jsmoriss/check-httpd-limits/master/check_httpd_limits.pl

to check why your config uses that much memory.

[gtsongi]

Thanks for the quick reply!
I've tried to run check_httpd_limits, but it only gives me warning about a few missing config variables before exiting with the error: ERROR: Cannot determine httpd version number.

[James Blond]

Argh! That is the ubuntu way of things to have the env vars in a different file that is only for the apache2ctl script.

what will work

[gtsongi]

Thank you! This worked perfectly.
I'm just a bit confused by the numbers it is displaying. For example: PID 21852 (apache2) : 25.49 MB / 5.58 MB shared
In Webmin the same process shows 378MB. Which one is the correct number?

[James Blond]

I think that check_httpd_limits.pl shows the true usage.

the quickest way to check what is true.