How do you know when to change to the worker MPM?

From what i read it handles a higher load better..My question is, how do you know when to change, and does it really matter?

I am having problems with the prefork, i think due to increased traffic.

Thanks

Hi,

there is no such hard and fast rule. Theses things are decided when you begin setting up a server.

Prefork model works by creating some number of identical child processes, which are a copy of parent and hence it consumes memory resources. But it provides stability.

Worker model is a threaded model which works for improved performance and can share the memory space. Thus allowing a higher load on the server. The performance is definitely better as compare to Prefork model. Here is the catch though, it works best for apache 2.0 version or higher. Also you need to make sure that the modules you are using with apache must be thread-safe.


I would suggest you to go for worker model in case your server is high on load. I remember that in our servers we once had about 150 process spawning for apache, which caused a considerable load on the CPU. Check out the apache documentation for more knowledge on this. You would have to recompile your apache for changed MPM or you may use the in-build apache mpm models provided by various flavours of linux like Red Hat.

-Rahul.

Thanks.

Im using Apache 2.0.54 or something.. kernel 2.6.x

The server is crashing only while there is a higher load on it, which is why i was considering recompiling apache.

I will, however, have to check and make sure all the modules I am using are thread safe.

thanks for the info.