The Mystery of Apache HTTPD Server Hanging and Solution

As I mentioned previously my Apache server was inexplicably hanging every morning (PST). And in panic I had to restart my VPS, whenever I could find it. It is clearly not an acceptable situation. And then I found the solution thanks to WestHost technical support.

Apparently my server’s maxclients parameter in httpd.conf (Apache configuration file) was set to 10 by some overenthusiastic tech support.

The solution was to change it to a decent limit like say 50:
MaxClients 50

MaxClients limits on total number of servers running, i.e., limits on the number of clients who can simultaneously connect — if this limit is ever reached, clients will be LOCKED OUT, so it should NOT BE SET TOO LOW. Unfortunately in my case it was set too low.

MaxClients is intended mainly as a brake to keep a runaway server from taking the system with it as it spirals down.