Process Management

Learning Focus

By the end of this lesson you will understand how OpenLiteSpeed spawns and manages PHP workers, what limits to configure, and how to right-size worker pools.

How PHP Worker Management Works

OpenLiteSpeed manages lsphp workers through the external application definition. It controls how many workers to spawn, when to create new ones, and when to recycle idle workers.

Key Settings

Setting	What It Controls	Recommended Range
Max Connections	Maximum concurrent PHP requests	10-50 depending on RAM
Initial Request Timeout	Time to wait for first response	60s
Retry Timeout	Delay before retrying a failed connection	0
Persistent Connection	Keep lsphp connections alive	Yes
Response Buffering	Buffer PHP output	Yes

Sizing PHP Workers

The formula: Workers × memory_limit ≤ Available RAM

Server RAM	PHP memory_limit	Max Workers
1 GB	128 MB	6-8
2 GB	128 MB	12-15
4 GB	256 MB	12-16
8 GB	256 MB	25-30

# Check current PHP worker count
ps aux | grep lsphp | grep -v grep | wc -l

# Check memory per worker
ps aux | grep lsphp | awk '{print $6/1024 " MB"}'

warning

Too many PHP workers cause swap pressure and worse performance. Too few workers increase request queueing. Always size from actual memory usage.

Key Takeaways

• PHP worker count should be based on available RAM and memory_limit, not guesswork.
• Monitor worker counts and memory usage under real traffic.
• Use persistent connections to reduce worker creation overhead.

What's Next

• Continue to Performance Benefits for more on LSAPI advantages.