How to Monitor Apache Web Server

Overview

The Apache integration allows you to monitor your Apache HTTP web server performance in real time using the mod_status module. Once activated, Xitoring collects key metrics like request processing times, server load, bandwidth usage, and connection states — all visible from your dashboard.

What Can It Monitor?

The Apache integration tracks the following metrics:

Load 1 / Load 5 / Load 15 — Server load averages over 1, 5, and 15 minutes
Requests per Second — Rate of incoming HTTP requests
Bytes per Second — Data throughput rate
Bytes per Request — Average response size per request
Busy Workers — Number of worker threads actively processing requests
Idle Workers — Number of worker threads waiting for requests
Total Accesses — Cumulative request count since server start
Total kBytes — Total data served since server start
Uptime — How long the Apache server has been running

Prerequisites

Before enabling the integration, you need to ensure that mod_status is enabled on your Apache server.

On Debian-based OS (Ubuntu, Debian)

Check if mod_status is enabled:

ls /etc/apache2/mods-enabled | grep status*

You should see status.conf and status.load in the output. Then edit /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/status.conf:

<IfModule mod_status.c>
    <Location /server-status>
        SetHandler server-status
        Require local
    </Location>
    ExtendedStatus On
    <IfModule mod_proxy.c>
        ProxyStatus On
    </IfModule>
</IfModule>

Restart Apache after making changes:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

On RHEL-based OS (CentOS, AlmaLinux, Rocky)

Verify mod_status is available:

ls -al modules/ | grep status*

Add the following to /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

<IfModule mod_status.c>
    ExtendedStatus On
    <Location /server-status>
        SetHandler server-status
        Require local
    </Location>
</IfModule>

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

On Windows Server

Open httpd.conf (typically at C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf\httpd.conf) and ensure this line is not commented out:

LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so

How to Activate the Integration

Once mod_status is configured, activate the integration via the Xitogent CLI:

xitogent integrate

Select Apache from the list of available integrations. When prompted, enter the URL where Apache serves its status page (e.g., http://127.0.0.1/server-status).

The integration config file will be created at /etc/xitogent/integrations/apache_integration.conf.

Setting Up Triggers

You can create custom triggers to get alerted when any metric exceeds or drops below a threshold. Available trigger parameters include:

Load 1, Load 5, Load 15
Requests per Second
Bytes per Second
Bytes per Request
Busy Workers / Idle Workers
Total Accesses / Total kBytes
Uptime

Navigate to Triggers in your server page, select Apache as the integration, choose the metric, set your threshold, and configure your notification channels.

Tips

Always use ExtendedStatus On to get detailed metrics
Restrict the /server-status endpoint to localhost for security
Use trigger alerts for Busy Workers to detect capacity issues early
Pair with uptime monitoring for complete web server visibility