httpd memory usage

Here's what I've done to 'solve' it:

1. Set MaxClients 7 (based on (1740.8Mb Memory on server - 900Mb for MySQL + other stuff) / 111Mb average usage per httpd process = 7.5747747747747747747747747747748)

Therefore:

<IfModule prefork.c>
StartServers       8
MinSpareServers    5
MaxSpareServers   20
ServerLimit      256
MaxClients         7
MaxRequestsPerChild  4000
</IfModule>

2. Disable all Apache modules except for authz_host_module, log_config_module, expires_module, deflate_module, setenvif_module, mime_module, autoindex_module, negotiation_module, dir_module, alias_module, rewrite_module, php5_module

3. Remove the mod_ssl package since the client isn't using https:// whatsoever.

I'll report back once this new configuration has been running a while to see if this solves it.

Some inspiration here was borrowed from: http://www.activoinc.com/blog/2009/08/31/performance-optimized-httpd-conf-for-magento-ecommerce/ and http://www.activoinc.com/downloads/httpd.conf-magento

I'm afraid option MaxRequestsPerChild helped in your case, as it's enables process recycling after defined number of requests, so memory leak is there, but not visible anymore.

Additionally: MaxClients = ServerLimit * ThreadsPerChild

In your case if you need only 7 concurrent users (MaxClients=7) it's totally enough with 2 process (just in case if one will fail to minimize downtime), so config can be:

<IfModule prefork.c>
StartServers       2
MinSpareServers    2
MaxSpareServers   20
ServerLimit        2
MaxClients         8
ThreadsPerChild    4
MaxRequestsPerChild  4000
</IfModule>

I use MaxClients 8, just to make more equal request distribution between 2 processes.