Why there are so many apache processes running?

Question

I am hosting a small testing website with Apache running on Linux, using free EC2 Micro instance.

When I tried to look at background process with "top", I saw a lot of (30+) "apache" user

PID    user     PR   NI VIRT RES   SHR S  %CPU %MEM  TIME+   COMMAND

12104 apache    20   0  429m 9024 2420 S  1.0  0.2   0:02.91  httpd              
12273 apache    20   0  429m 9108 2504 S  1.0  0.2   0:01.20  httpd              
...

I am not sure this is normal. Does this mean I may be attached by someone/virus?

P.S. I only expect 2-3 test users to use it at all at this point. It's a php + apache + mysql architect.

thanks.

Answer 1

Apache will pre-create worker processes so, when a load spike comes in, the processes can pick up the requests immediately, instead of waiting for the master to spawn enough of them. Check your httpd.conf for MinSpareServers, MaxSpareServers and ServerLimit.