Apache – Too many TIME_WAIT connections

apachetcptime-wait

We have a fairly busy website (1 million page views/day) using Apache mod proxy that keeps getting overloaded with connections (>1,000) in the TIME_WAIT state. The connections are to port 3306 (mysql), but mysql only shows a few connections (show process list) and is performing fine.
We have tried changing a bunch of things (keep alive on/off), but nothing seems to help. All other system resources are within reasonable range.

I've searched around, which seems to indicate changing the tcp_time_wait_interval. But that seems a bit drastic. I've worked on busy website before, but never had this problem.

Any suggestions?

Best Answer

Each time_wait connection is a connection that has been closed.

You're probably connecting to mysql, issuing a query, then disconnecting. Repeat for each query on the page. Consider using a connection pooling tool, or at very least, a global variable that holds on to your database connection. If you use a global, you'll have to close the connection at the end of the page. Hopefully you have someplace common you can put that, like a footer include.

As a bonus, you should get a faster page load. MySQL is quick to connect, but not having to re-connect is even faster.

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