Handy Software Lab Products Knowledge Base

Q. How do I display Apache server status such as current server activity and performance under Red Hat Enterprise Linux / UNIX / BSD/Windows?

A. You can use regular Linux / UNIX commands such as lsof, netstat, top, vmstat and others to view apache server activity, status and performance from a shell prompt. However, we're recommend mod_status because it provides good information about Apache server.

mod_status Apache module

There is also mod_status built into Apache web server to get server status from a web browser. With this module you can easily find out how well your server is preforming. All reports are generated in a html format. You can easily find out following type of information:

1. Total number of worker serving requests
2. Total number of of idle worker
3. Find the status of each worker, the number of requests that worker has performed and the total number of bytes served by the worker
4. Total number byte count served
5. Other information such as CPU usage, number of requests per second,current hosts and requests being processed etc.

How do I configure mod_status to display Apache web server status?

Open your httpd.conf / apache2.conf file:
# vi httpd.conf
Fnd out (append line) that read as follows to allow access from 10.1.2.5 only:

<Location /server-status>
SetHandler server-status
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 10.1.2.5
</Location>

You can also restrict access using a domain name:

<Location /server-status>
SetHandler server-status
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from w1.g2.dc3.helpdesk.nixcraft.com
</Location>

Save and close the file. Restart web server, enter:
# service httpd restart
Fire a webbrowser and type the url http://your-server-ip/server-status or http://your-corp.com/server-status

Sample Apache Server Status Report

Also you can use the HSLAB HTTP Monitor for advanced visual monitoring? Apache web servers.

With HSLAB HTTP Monitor , administrators always know who is currently connected, server operations distribution, amount of bandwidth being consumed, and number of server requests per unit of time. Since software is server independent, server running on Apache may be located thousands of miles away from where program is installed. Software shows all virtual servers being hosted, statistics for them, and what files or documents are being accessed.