Large httpd.conf Files

[Crosswinds]

I ran into an interesting issue.

I have a cPanel server with about 500 small domains on it - very low traffic. Currently using Apache+php-fcgi and it's working out pretty well, but I like simplicity.

I decided to try lsws to see how it works, etc and my results have not been encouraging.

The httpd.conf files has a total of 1595 virtual hosts - most of which are subdomains and parked domains. Apache has no issue loading this up or running.

I fired up lsws and the import took a very long time (30-40 mins - I went and got a coffee). Starting up lsws and going to a domain on the system (on the lsws port) I get the lsws welcome screen.

No problem, I go to the admin port and.... it times out. Every time. admin_php eats all available cpu and I've upped the memory and php execution time and it simply cannot process that many virtual hosts efficiently.

Any recommendations? (heh and no, moving some onto another server isn't a good recommendation - Apache is doing quite a good task at the moment - I am simply looking for an even better customer experience - they are quite happy as it is).