** JVM and Processes

[my...@potsdam.edu]

Hi,

For a particular web server we are running with Tomcat 3.1, we are having
an issue with the java servlets that are running. What appears to be
happening is that each time a servlet is called from the web site, a new
process is created to run the java program. When I view processes with "ps
ax", I see dozens of instances of: 
/usr/java/jdk1.3/bin/i386/native_threads/java
 
It was briefly stated in Java Servlet Programming by Hunter & Crawford, (c)
Oreilly that 'most servlet containers execute all servlets in a single JVM
... the exception being high-end containers that support execution across
multiple backend servers...' 

We are only using 1 web server with an average weekly load of a couple of
hundred visitors.

Any ideas as to why we would be seeing so many identical processes and if
so, how to modify that?

Thanks in advance.

  -Adam