Apache and FastCGI

RoR Agile Sysadmin

An example config:

<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
  FastCgiIpcDir /tmp/fcgi_ipc
  FastCgiServer /path/to/myapp/dispatch.fcgi -initial_env RAILS_ENV=production \
     -processes 15 -idle-timeout 60
</IfModule>

The important part is FastCgiServer. It creating static server definition - 15 fastcgi servers are started right after the server is launched and running until the server is stopped. That whay is faster that to relay on Apache to start the servers when the first time .fcgi page is accessed (dynamic server definition).
idle-timeout also is critical value. If any request takes longer than the limit, Apache will assume the FastCGI process crashed and return an error 500. If the application talks to remote servers (process requests slower) increase the idle-timeout from the default 30 to 60 seconds.