Webserver coming to a standstill

Webserver coming to a standstill

by Hans de Zwart -
Number of replies: 2
I run a Moodle Installation on an AMD 2800 with 256MB of RAM. The server runs Fedora 2 with PHP 4.3.10 and Apache 2.
The Moodle version is Moodle 1.5.2 + (2005060223)

Lately some of the students have found out that they can bring down the webserver by going to the frontpage an continuously refresh the page. They appear to do this with a couple of students and it takes them a couple of minutes.
The webserver is then down, and I have to do a restart of the HTTP daemon to solve the problem.
See the attached logs for an example.

Is there anything I can do to prevent the webserver from crashing? I am affraid that adding more memory is not an option (financially). Right now I have put in a cron job to restart httpd every ten minutes, that way it is never long before Moodle is back in the air.

I realise that the first solution is to talk to the students, and that is something that I will definitely do. But I am hoping that there is a technical solution next to the pedagogical one.

Is there anybody who can help me?
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In reply to Hans de Zwart

Re: Webserver coming to a standstill

by koen roggemans -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Translators
Let the server accept less connections?

Their was a rule of thumb here somewhere how to calculate the number of connections to allow. Something like

(Memory -32 mb(for linux os) /30 MB(per connection)

That would give for you 7 simultanious connections wich are possible in a 10 second frame

I don't remember the exact setting in httpd.config / php.ini /... - have to go to sleep wink