This is my first attempt at IIS connector tuning for ColdFusion 11 (and 10). Most of my career has been spent developing ColdFusion code and is now focusing more on server related activities. Plus CF 10 and 11 were slow to be implemented by our customers.

It seems that most information out there for connector tuning is based around one sole blog post: http://blogs.coldfusion.com/post.cfm/coldfusion-11-iis-connector-tuning (and CF 10’s version).

My post focuses on a three instance approach, using ColdFusion 11 Enterprise, with individual site connectors (as opposed to “all IIS sites”).

The basic concept as I understand it is to set the connection_pool_size to 500 and monitor the site. Add up this number in each site, using the same instance, and use that value for maxThreads for the AJP connector setting. Then gradually increase that value by 100 under load testing conditions until stable. Then give that number some wiggle room for future growth. After that number is set, then set the max_reuse_connections and connection_pool_timeout.

So lets say, as an example, that I use the “All IIS Sites” option for my connector instead of individual connectors. If I use the recommended connection_pool_size of 500 for each site, I’d use 3000. Then based upon the equation of connection_pool_size / # of sites, I’d set “max_reuse_connections = 500”. Example:

worker.list=instance1
worker.instance1.type=ajp13
worker.instance1.host=localhost
worker.instance1.max_reuse_connections=500
worker.instance1.connection_pool_size=3000
worker.instance1.connection_pool_timeout=60

<Connector port="8013" protocol="AJP/1.3" redirectPort="8446" tomcatAuthentication="false" maxThreads="3000" connectionTimeout ="60000"/>

Now, when I looked up the workers.properties specs for Tomcat I found that max_reuse_connections is not a standard property. I’m assuming this is one of the customizations made by Adobe. Based upon how the value of this property is a division of the number of sites, that this property is per site. Therefore in conclusion, I have up to 500 connections to reuse for each site in my total pool of 3000.

Now, lets say we’re using individual connectors. Each of the six workers.properties would look like this based upon Adobe’s blog:

worker.list=instance1
worker.instance1.type=ajp13
worker.instance1.host=localhost
worker.instance1.max_reuse_connections=83
worker.instance1.connection_pool_size=500
worker.instance1.connection_pool_timeout=60

<Connector port="8013" protocol="AJP/1.3" redirectPort="8446" tomcatAuthentication="false" maxThreads="3000" connectionTimeout ="60000"/>

So, as per Adobe’s blog, connection_pool_size / # of sites rounds down to 83, instead of 500. 6 sites X 500 connection_pool_size = 3000, which is reflected in the instance’s server.xml file.

In the end, the instance still allows for 3,000 connections; 500 coming from each site.

Question: Why am I using the same calculation for max_reuse_connections when combining all sites or connecting them individually? Shouldn’t I be able to use up to the value of each connection_pool_size for each connector? If max_reuse_connections is for each site, shouldn’t that number be the same no matter individual or “All IIS” connector types?

For example:

worker.list=instance1
worker.instance1.type=ajp13
worker.instance1.host=localhost
worker.instance1.max_reuse_connections=500
worker.instance1.connection_pool_size=500
worker.instance1.connection_pool_timeout=60

<Connector port="8013" protocol="AJP/1.3" redirectPort="8446" tomcatAuthentication="false" maxThreads="3000" connectionTimeout ="60000"/>