[BlueOnyx:09296] Heavy load during lots of httpd requests

[Robert Fitzpatrick]

I have a customer with a BlueOnyx VPS that produces tons of httpd
processes and the load goes above 100, yes 100+, and of course brings
the server to a halt when it is hit by tons of requests at one time.
There is a tweet sent out by someone who has 2 million followers to got
to the site to buy a book and it takes down this VPS. After we block
traffic, restart Apache to purge existing connections and open all back
again, everything is fine, until the next tweet. It just cannot handle
the initial hit. We are working on optimizing MySQL and Apache now. Has
anyone dealt with this or have any recommendations for handling such a hit?

Thanks, Robert
--
Robert <robert at webtent.org>