Server Setup Queries

[Infinite Tester <in...@gmail.com>]

Hello All!

I have some queries on how to setup my production machine based on my
requirements.

My current setup
1) Apache 2.2 and Tomcat 6
2) Apache serving all images + CSS + JS
3) Apache connected to tomcat using mod_jk.
4) Tomcat serving a lot of ajax calls ( backed by memcache + db).

Server config
1) 2 GB , dual core
2) Around 500 MB would be free for apache ( rest used by memcache + tomcat +
mysql )

By reading a lot of articles, I could think of the following ways to setup

OPTION 1 ( in case of 1 server )

   - Instead of mod_jk use mod_proxy_ajp
   - Use NIO http connector in tomcat

OPTION 2 ( in case of 1 server )

   - Use apache/lighthttpd to serve all static files, use
   mod_proxy_ajp to connect to tomcat ( which runs using ajp connector )  OR
   - Use apache/lighthttpd to serve all static files, use proxy to
   connect to tomcat ( which runs using NIO connector)

OPTION 2 ( in case of 2 servers )

   - Use lighthttpd to serve all static files ( images + css + js ) (
   Machine 1 )
   - Machine 2: Run tomcat directly on port 80 ( and use NIO http
   connector )

 Could someone help me understand what is possible/not possible and which
would be a better option ( I know I have to do some benchmarking, but I
really need to understand what all options do I have )

As I see,
  - I don't need tomcat to serve my static content
  - LightHttpd seems to be a better option in serving static content than
apache
  - Tomcat NIO connector can supposedly scale upto 16,000 connections (
http://blog.covalent.net/roller/covalent/entry/20070308) but I cannot
understand how to use it my current setup.
  - There are no NIO AJP connectors ( for connecting from apache to tomcat )


Thanks,
- RT