Preface

This guide discusses configuration and performance tuning of the Oracle HTTP Server powered by Apache.

There are many sources of information on configuring and tuning web servers, Apache in particular. This guide refers to those sources when expedient, and, where practical, quantifies the performance gains resulting from configuration actions found in those sources. Any recommendations not validated by Oracle in-house testing are cited as such, with attribution to the original source.

All in-house tests detailed in this guide were run on a dedicated 100 Mbps network, in order to achieve repeatable test results. Your results will vary based on network configuration and contention characteristics.

This preface contains these topics:

Audience

This guide is written for Oracle9i Application Server developers and system administrators who are responsible for configuring and tuning the Oracle HTTP Server powered by Apache.

To use this document, you need a working knowledge of web server administration and performance tuning concepts.

Organization

This document contains:

Chapter 1, "Performance Overview"

Describes performance and tuning concepts and terminology, with a description of the Oracle HTTP Server components in the Oracle9i Application Server architecture.

Chapter 2, "Monitoring Your Web Server"

Discusses the importance of monitoring to performance tuning, and describes tools and processes for gathering information about the web server and operating system software.

Chapter 3, "Sizing and Configuration"

Provides guidelines and approaches to sizing and configuration to meet performance goals.

Chapter 4, "Optimizing HTTP Server Performance"

Discusses tuning parameters to improve HTTP server performance and the effects of caching and logging on performance.

Chapter 5, "Optimizing Apache JServ"

Discusses performance and load balancing for Apache JServ, and optimizing the performance of OracleJSP pages.

Related Documentation

For more information, see these Oracle resources:

Oracle9i Application Server Overview Guide
OracleJavaServer Pages Developer's Guide and Reference

In North America, printed documentation is available for sale in the Oracle Store at

http://oraclestore.oracle.com/

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Other customers can contact their Oracle representative to purchase printed documentation.

To download free release notes, installation documentation, white papers, or other collateral, please visit the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). You must register online before using OTN; registration is free and can be done at

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If you already have a username and password for OTN, then you can go directly to the documentation section of the OTN Web site at

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The following sources provide additional information on topics found in this guide:

Windows NT Performance Tuning and Optimization by Kenton Gardinier,
Berkeley: Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 1998

For information on the mod_status utility, see

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/apache/2000/04/21/wrangler.html
http://www.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_status.html

For information on the LogLevel directive, see

http://www.apache.org/docs/mod/core.html#loglevel

For information on Apache web server performance, see Dale Gaudet's Apache Performance Notes at
```
http://www.apache.org/docs/misc/perf-tuning.html
```
For information about performance and the HTTP/1.1 protocol, see
```
http://www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP/Performance/Pipeline.html
```

For more information on the FIN_WAIT_2 state, see

http://apache.put.poznan.pl/misc/fin_wait_2.html

Conventions

This section describes the conventions used in the text and code examples of the this documentation set. It describes:

Conventions in Text

We use various conventions in text to help you more quickly identify special terms. The following table describes those conventions and provides examples of their use.

Convention Meaning Example

Bold

Bold typeface indicates terms that are defined in the text or terms that appear in a glossary, or both.

The C datatypes such as ub4, sword, or OCINumber are valid.
When you specify this clause, you create an index-organized table.

Italics

Italic typeface indicates book titles, emphasis, syntax clauses, or placeholders.

Oracle8i Concepts
You can specify the parallel_clause.
Run Uold_release.SQL where old_release refers to the release you installed prior to upgrading.

lowercase monospace (fixed-width font)

Lowercase monospace typeface indicates executables and sample user-supplied elements. Such elements include computer and database names, net service names, and connect identifiers, as well as user-supplied database objects and structures, column names, packages and classes, user names and roles, program units, and parameter values.

Enter sqlplus to open SQL*Plus.
The department_id, department_name, and location_id columns are in the hr.departments table.
Set the QUERY_REWRITE_ENABLED initialization parameter to true.
Connect as oe user.

Convention	Meaning	Example
Bold	Bold typeface indicates terms that are defined in the text or terms that appear in a glossary, or both.	The C datatypes such as ub4, sword, or OCINumber are valid. When you specify this clause, you create an index-organized table.
Italics	Italic typeface indicates book titles, emphasis, syntax clauses, or placeholders.	Oracle8i Concepts You can specify the parallel_clause. Run `U``old_release``.SQL` where old_release refers to the release you installed prior to upgrading.
lowercase monospace (fixed-width font)	Lowercase monospace typeface indicates executables and sample user-supplied elements. Such elements include computer and database names, net service names, and connect identifiers, as well as user-supplied database objects and structures, column names, packages and classes, user names and roles, program units, and parameter values.	Enter `sqlplus` to open SQL*Plus. The `department_id`, `department_name`, and `location_id` columns are in the `hr.departments` table. Set the `QUERY_REWRITE_ENABLED` initialization parameter to `true.` Connect as `oe` user.

Conventions in Code Examples

Code examples illustrate SQL, PL/SQL, SQL*Plus, or other command-line statements. They are displayed in a monospace (fixed-width) font and separated from normal text as shown in this example:

SELECT username FROM dba_users WHERE username = 'MIGRATE';

The following table describes typographic conventions used in code examples and provides examples of their use.

Convention Meaning Example

[ ]

Brackets enclose one or more optional items. Do not enter the brackets.

DECIMAL (digits [ , precision ])

{ }

Braces enclose two or more items, one of which is required. Do not enter the braces.

{ENABLE | DISABLE}

|

A vertical bar represents a choice of two or more options within brackets or braces. Enter one of the options. Do not enter the vertical bar.

{ENABLE | DISABLE}
[COMPRESS | NOCOMPRESS]

...

Horizontal ellipsis points indicate either:

That we have omitted parts of the code that are not directly related to the example

That you can repeat a portion of the code

CREATE TABLE ... AS subquery;

SELECT col1, col2, ... , coln FROM employees;

.
.
.

Vertical ellipsis points indicate that we have omitted several lines of code not directly related to the example.

Other notation

You must enter symbols other than brackets, braces, vertical bars, and ellipsis points as it is shown.

acctbal NUMBER(11,2);
acct CONSTANT NUMBER(4) := 3;

Italics

Italicized text indicates variables for which you must supply particular values.

CONNECT SYSTEM/system_password

UPPERCASE

Uppercase typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. We show these terms in uppercase in order to distinguish them from terms you define. Unless terms appear in brackets, enter them in the order and with the spelling shown. However, because these terms are not case sensitive, you can enter them in lowercase.

SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees;
SELECT * FROM USER_TABLES;
DROP TABLE hr.employees;

lowercase

Lowercase typeface indicates programmatic elements that you supply. For example, lowercase indicates names of tables, columns, or files.

SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees;
sqlplus hr/hr

Convention	Meaning	Example
[ ]	Brackets enclose one or more optional items. Do not enter the brackets.	`DECIMAL (digits [ , precision ])`
{ }	Braces enclose two or more items, one of which is required. Do not enter the braces.	`{ENABLE \| DISABLE}`
\|	A vertical bar represents a choice of two or more options within brackets or braces. Enter one of the options. Do not enter the vertical bar.	`{ENABLE \| DISABLE}` `[COMPRESS \| NOCOMPRESS]`
`...`	Horizontal ellipsis points indicate either: That we have omitted parts of the code that are not directly related to the example That you can repeat a portion of the code	`CREATE TABLE ... AS subquery;` `SELECT col1, col2, ... , col``n` `FROM employees;`
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points indicate that we have omitted several lines of code not directly related to the example.
Other notation	You must enter symbols other than brackets, braces, vertical bars, and ellipsis points as it is shown.	`acctbal NUMBER(11,2);` `acct CONSTANT NUMBER(4) := 3;`
`Italics`	Italicized text indicates variables for which you must supply particular values.	`CONNECT SYSTEM/``system_password`
`UPPERCASE`	Uppercase typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. We show these terms in uppercase in order to distinguish them from terms you define. Unless terms appear in brackets, enter them in the order and with the spelling shown. However, because these terms are not case sensitive, you can enter them in lowercase.	`SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees;` `SELECT * FROM USER_TABLES;` `DROP TABLE hr.employees;`
`lowercase`	Lowercase typeface indicates programmatic elements that you supply. For example, lowercase indicates names of tables, columns, or files.	`SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees;` `sqlplus hr/hr`