How I do slow start with nginx and/or Apache?
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I have a server where nginx serves as a front load balancer and Apache with mod_php as application server on backend.

During peak hours if I restart apache as is immediately after restart it will die under current load because no caches primed yet.

I was thinking may be there is a way to do a slow start somehow? I.e. throttling number of connections depending on service uptime or something, like "allow no more than 10 connections than 1 second before" or something like this.

more low-level approach with iptables will work for me too, just do not know where to look for it.