Why do I get lots of random SSL protocol errors under heavy server load?
[L] There can be a number of reasons for this, but the main one is problems with the SSL session Cache specified by the SSLSessionCache directive. The DBM session cache is most likely the source of the problem, so trying the SHM session cache or no cache at all may help. • Why has my webserver a higher load now that I run SSL there? [L] Because SSL uses strong cryptographic encryption and this needs a lot of number crunching. And because when you request a webpage via HTTPS even the images are transfered encrypted. So, when you have a lot of HTTPS traffic the load increases. • Often HTTPS connections to my server require up to 30 seconds for establishing the connection, although sometimes it works faster? [L] Usually this is caused by using a /dev/random device for SSLRandomSeed which is blocking in read(2) calls if not enough entropy is available. Read more about this problem in the refernce chapter under SSLRandomSeed. • What SSL Ciphers are supported by mod_ssl? [L] Usually just all
