I admin a server for a client who recently upgrade a web application.

Using EasyApache, the site is configured to run PHP5 using suPHP + suhosin + mod security.

before the site upgrade, server was running with a peak of 1.0 CPU load

after I have seen it peak at 19.0+

The new application contains an ajax PHP chat, which appears to be a large part of the load.

I am using the default suPHP settings - are there any ways to tune it to help increase performance?

Another idea I had was to try to run the chat via the php DSO module (via a separate file extension - .php5 or something like that), but I know I have run into some problems before with a cgi-ized PHP accessing session data from a non-cgi-ized php.

Any tips/suggestions are appreciated.

TIA
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George