Topic: How to troubleshoot sudden slow performance?

[tvn]

Hi

I have Apache running on two Windows server 2003 machines within a Windows domain supporting about 10 users. One is Apache 2.0.52, the other is 2.2 The 2.0 Apache instance simply redirects to the installation on the 2.2 installation on the other server. In the last few weeks performance has been erratic and sometimes inordinately slow, and I'm at a loss as to what is causing this. The same pages sometimes load without appreciable delay, sometimes it takes 15-20 seconds. Swings in performance happen throughout the day -- one minute it's quick, the next it it's slow again.

I can't see any signs of problems in the Apache logs even after setting them to warning mode, but then I may be missing something I'm not aware I should be looking for. Could anyone give me any pointers?

Further background:
Running PHP 5.2.5 (for the DokuWiki documentation engine)
SSL enabled, self-signed cert
No MySQL or any database processes running
Dynamic pages use plain CGI to access an embedded database (Berkeley DBXML) -- the timings of the database queries show that there's no delay in the code executing queries, just when accessing the site -- the delay seems to be in Apache serving the pages.
Site is hosted and accessed from behind a campus firewall -- no public access.

Any suggestions appreciated...

Tim

[James Blond]

QoS slows Apache down. As Apache does not support the QoS extensions to the WinSock API.
If you are running Small Business server it limits the number of connections to the number of your CALs.
Maybe the network itself slows it down.