Does this ps listing look correct when running Apache?

[John Hudak <jjhudak@xxxxxxxxx>]

Under ubuntu 8.04 I installed, configured, and am running Apache 2.2.8).

When I so a ps -lax, I see the following:

F   UID   PID  PPID PRI  NI    VSZ   RSS WCHAN  STAT TTY        TIME COMMAND
4     0  6242     1  20   0   6928  2612 -      Ss   tty1       0:00 /bin/login --    
4  1000  6248  6242  20   0   5572  2992 -      S+   tty1       0:00 -bash
1     0  6285  6121  20   0   8084   876 -      S    ?          0:09 /usr/sbin/winbindd
1     0  6286  6121  20   0   8092  1296 -      S    ?          0:21 /usr/sbin/winbindd
5    10  8256     1  20   0   5352  1448 -      Ss   ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/faxq
1    10  8258     1  20   0   4688  1016 -      Ss   ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/hfaxd -i 4559
4    10  8266     1  20   0   5464  2412 -      S    ?          0:44 /usr/sbin/faxgetty ttyACM0
5     0 12714     1  20   0  23904  7080 -      Ss   ?          0:02 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
5    33 12716 12714  20   0  23904  4224 -      S    ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
5    33 12717 12714  20   0  23904  4232 -      S    ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
5    33 12731 12714  20   0  23904  4224 -      S    ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
5    33 12733 12714  20   0  23904  4224 -      S    ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
5    33 12734 12714  20   0  23904  4220 -      S    ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
5    33 12735 12714  20   0  23904  4224 -      S    ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
5    33 12737 12714  20   0  23904  4220 -      S    ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
5     0 12802     1  20   0   7600  2104 -      Ssl  ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/console-kit-daemon
5    33 13010 12714  20   0  23904  4224 -      S    ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
5    33 13069 12714  20   0  23904  4224 -      S    ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
5    33 13467 12714  20   0  23904  4200 -      S    ?          0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
1  1000 14289     1  20   0   2384   612 -      Ss+  ttyS0      0:15 heyu_relay
---snip----

My question is: Why all the instantiations of apache2 -k start?  I expected to see one.

Doing some investigation I discovered that I have  Apache built as multi-process (pre-forked) so I am guessing that these are the suspended processes?

If so, how many should there be? does this look right?

An ancillary question: the machine serves 4 name-based virtual sites, so would it be better to have Apache built as multiprocess or mult-threaded?

The machine is a whopping 1.2 GHz, single core, with 1 GB of memory, and a very large page size.

Thanks for the insight.

-John