Red Hat LINUX 7.2 Reference Manual page 197

Section 13.3:Configuration Directives in httpd.conf 197
Your server's default MinSpareServers is 5; your server's default MaxSpareServers is 20.
These default settings should be appropriate in most situations. You should not increase the MinS-
pareServers to a large number. Doing so will create a heavy processing load on your server even
when traffic is light.
13.3.13 StartServers
StartServers sets how many server processes are created upon startup. Since your Web server
dynamically kills and creates server processes based on traffic load, you will not need to change this
parameter. Your Web server is set to start eight server processes at startup.
13.3.14 MaxClients
MaxClients sets a limit on the total number of server processes (i.e., simultaneously connected
clients) that can run at one time. You should keep MaxClients at a high number (your server's de-
fault is set to 150), because no one else will be allowed to connect once that number of simultaneously
connected clients is reached. You can not set MaxClients to higher than 256 without recompiling
Apache. The main reason for having MaxClients is to keep a runaway Web server from crashing
your operating system.
13.3.15 MaxRequestsPerChild
MaxRequestsPerChild sets the total number of requests each child server process serves before
the child dies. The main reason for setting MaxRequestsPerChild is to avoid long-lived process
induced memory leaks. The default MaxRequestsPerChild for your server is 1000.
13.3.16 Listen
The Listen command identifies the ports on which your Web server will accept incoming requests.
Your Web server is set to listen to port 80 for non-secure Web communications and (in the virtual host
tags that define the secure server) to port 443 for secure Web communications.
If you set Apache to listen to a port under 1024, you must be root to start it. For port 1024 and above,
httpd can be started as a regular user.
Listen can also be used to specify particular IP addresses over which the server will accept connec-
tions.
13.3.17 BindAddress
BindAddress is a way of specifying which IP addresses your server will listen to. You should use
the Listen directive instead if you need this functionality. BindAddress is not used by your Web
server; by default it is commented out in httpd.conf.