Hi,
I noticed there's a trick to accelerate file downloads for nginx ("X_accel_redirect"), The following patch adds the same feature for Apache's xsendfile.
To enable it:
1. Download, Compile, Install mod_xsendfile http://tn123.ath.cx/mod_xsendfile/
2. Make sure your apache configuration has the correct "LoadModule" for xsendfile.
3. In the apache's configuration relevant to galaxy, add the two directives: XSendFile ON and XSendFileAllowAbove ON
Example: ReWriteEngine on ReWriteRule ^/galaxy$ /galaxy/ [R] RewriteRule ^/galaxy(.*) http://127.0.0.1:8080$1 [P] <Location "/galaxy" > order allow,deny allow from all XSendFile on XSendFileAllowAbove on </Location>
4. In "universe_wsgi.ini", add the following parameter: apache_xsendfile = true
If all worked well, whenever a user downloads a dataset (via the "save" link), the actual file transfer will be delegated to back apache.
Comments are welcomed, -gordon