Tomcat6 ThreadPool questions

[Lee Lowder]

I currently have a tomcat 6 setup, and I am trying to understand how it handles the threadpools.

I have an executor defined, and I have an AJP connector that uses it.

I have specified a minSpareThreads in the executor, but when I look at the thread pool info in psi-Probe it does not seem to be behaving as I expect it to.

I know that in tomcat5, you could specify a minSpareThreads and a maxSpareThreads and then tomcat would start minSpareThreads and create up to maxThreads as needed, then keep the number of spare, idle threads somewhere between minSpareThreads and maxSpareThreads.

I also know that in tomcat6, this functionality was moved to executors and the maxSpareThreads attribute was removed.

I have minSpareThreads set to 30, but when I watch the server in psi-Probe I see that the current number of threads is usually equal to the number of busy threads or 2-3 higher, and often drops down to 2-3 total when the server is idle.

Am I missing some config option, or is my understanding of how this should work flawed?

Thank you for your assistance in this.