$Id: README,v 1.2 2001/10/31 22:17:38 mpeppler Exp $

This is Apache::Sybase::ConPool, a connection pooling module for mod_perl and Sybase database servers.

Copyright (c) 2001 by Michael Peppler.

This module uses the fact that Sybase client connections can be shared between processes to create a pool of database connections that can be shared between all of the httpd processes using mod_perl. The connections are created during the Apache initialization by including this module in a startup.pl or pre-load.pl script loaded with a PerlRequire directive in httpd.conf.

I have been using a version of this module for about a year now on a site with a farm of 40 web servers, and it has worked well. The caveat is that connections can't be re-initialized while the web server is running, so you have to stop/start Apache to reconnect to the database if the database is rebooted, or if the connections become unusable for any other reason.

The eg/ directory has a sample conpool.cfg file, as well as a simple pool.cgi script that illustrates usage.

Credit where credit is due department: I initially got this technique from Kenny MacLeod, who suggested it when I was inquiring about connection pooling in the Sybase newsgroups about a year ago.

Comments are as usual welcome!

Michael Peppler, mpeppler@peppler.org