Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.1 2005Q2 Performance Tuning Guide

- Previous: Access Log
- Next: Keep Alive

### Request Processing

On the Request Processing tab of the HTTP Service page, tune the following HTTP request processing settings:

- Thread Count

- Initial Thread Count

- Request Timeout

- Buffer Length

#### Thread Count

The Thread Count parameter specifies the maximum number of simultaneous requests the server can handle. The default value is 128. When the server has reached the limit or request threads, it defers processing new requests until the number of active requests drops below the maximum amount. Increasing this value will reduce HTTP response latency times.

In practice, clients frequently connect to the server and then do not complete their requests. In these cases, the server waits a length of time specified by the Request Timeout parameter.

Also, some sites do heavyweight transactions that take minutes to complete. Both of these factors add to the maximum simultaneous requests that are required. If your site is processing many requests that take many seconds, you might need to increase the number of maximum simultaneous requests.

Adjust the thread count value based on your load and the length of time for an average request. In general, increase this number if you have idle CPU time and requests that are pending; decrease it if the CPU becomes overloaded. If you have many HTTP 1.0 clients (or HTTP 1.1 clients that disconnect frequently), adjust the timeout value to reduce the time a connection is kept open.

Suitable Request Thread Count values range from 100 to 500, depending on the load. If your system has extra CPU cycles, keep incrementally increasing thread count and monitor performance after each incremental increase. When performance saturates (stops improving), then stop increasing thread count.

#### Initial Thread Count

The Initial Thread Count property specifies the minimum number of threads the server initiates upon start-up. The default value is 48. Initial Thread Count represents a hard limit for the maximum number of active threads that can run simultaneously, which can become a bottleneck for performance.

#### Request Timeout

The Request Timeout property specifies the number of seconds the server waits between accepting a connection to a client and receiving information from it. The default setting is 30 seconds. Under most circumstances, changing this setting is unnecessary. By setting it to less than the default 30 seconds, it is possible to free up threads sooner. However, disconnecting users with slower connections also helps.

#### Buffer Length

The size (in bytes) of the buffer used by each of the request processing threads for reading the request data from the client.

Adjust the value based on the actual request size and observe the impact on performance. In most cases the default should suffice. If the request size is large, increase this parameter.

- Previous: Access Log
- Next: Keep Alive

- © 2010, Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates