Hi in apache i am checking on preforking mpm modules, In my apache configuration there seems it going against theory on certain odd conditions.
If you are setting StartServers=x and MinIdleServers=x+2 then it has to start the apahce with x number of childs and it has to settle down to x+2 value on server(Be informed that there is no load), Instead of settling down to x+2 it comes as x+3. Now if you are getting confused, lets take some values for x.
Say
under prefork.c
StartServers=3
MinSpareServers=5 Then theoritically it should start 3 (httpd PIDs) and then it has to scale to 5httpd(PIDs), instead it prefork 6childs. which is totally wrong against the docs. If there was a load accepted, it could have preforked and settling back down.