Performance tuning your HTTPD server settings can avoid things like high memory usage and swap file usage.
Memory Limit (PHP): Default 128 MB
Maximum amount of memory a script may consume
ScopServ recommends the default setting. Only increase this value if a commit fails to complete due to memory exhaustion.
Minimum number of idle child server processes: Default 10
This directive sets the desired minimum number of idle child server
processes. An idle process is one which is not handling a request. If
there are fewer spareservers idle then specified by this value, then the
parent process creates new children at a maximum rate of 1 per second.
Setting this parameter to a large number is almost always a bad idea.
ScopServ recommends adjusting the value for this setting to the following:
Virtualized server 5
Dedicated server with 1-2GB RAM 10
Dedicated server with 2-4GB RAM 20
Dedicated server with 4+ GB RAM 25
Maximum number of idle child server processes: Default 20
This directive sets the desired maximum number of idle child server
processes. An idle process is one which is not handling a request. If
there are more than MaxSpareServers idle, then the parent process will
kill off the excess processes.
This value should be set as double the value that is set in ‘Minimum number of idle child server processes’.
Maximum number of connections that will be processed simultaneously: Default 256
This directive sets the limit on the number of simultaneous requests
that will be served. Any connection attempts over the specified limit
will be queued. Once a process is freed at the end of a different
request, the queued connection will then be served.
For virtualized servers it is recommended to set this value at 150. For
all dedicated servers the recommended value for this setting is 256.
Limit on the number of requests that an individual child server will handle during its life: Default 4000
This directive sets the limit on the number of requests that an
individual child server process will handle. After the number of
requests reaches the value specified, the child process will die. When
this value is set at 0, then the process will never expire.
ScopServ recommends adjusting the value for this setting to the following:
Virtualized server, 300
Dedicated server with 1-4GB RAM 500
Dedicated server with 4+GB RAM 1000