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Gary Richardson
Asked: 2011-12-07 07:02:34 +0800 CST

Why does Apache have MaxClients and ServerLimit?

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I'm using prefork apache 2.2 and I can't seem to figure out why there is a MaxClients directive and a ServerLimit directive.

I understand that you need to increase both of these in step -- google has told me this over and over again. As far as I can tell they both control the maximum number of Apache process running at any time.

Why do they both exist? For prefork, they seem redundant. Is there a subtle difference I'm missing?

apache-2.2 mpm-prefork

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Serverlimit = limit for processes in general (default: 256)

    MaxClients = limit for child-processes

    You don't have to set ServerLimit as long as Maxclients < 256 btw. (but you can save some memory if you do so)

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