The throttle module provides a congestion control throttling mechanism for automatically detecting a surge in incoming traffic. If the site gets linked to by a popular website, or otherwise comes under a "Denial of Service" (DoS) attack, your webserver might become overwhelmed. This mechanism is utilized by other modules to automatically optimize their performance by temporarily disabling CPU-intensive functionality. For example, in the site theme, you might choose to disable pictures when the site is too busy (reducing bandwidth), or in modules, you might choose to disable some complicated logic (reducing CPU utilization).

The congestion control throttle can be automatically enabled when the number of anonymous users currently visiting the site exceeds the specified threshold. The congestion control throttle can be automatically enabled when the number of authenticated users currently visiting the site exceeds the specified threshold.

You can:

  1. enable throttle for modules at administer >> module.
  2. enable throttle for blocks at administer >> block.
  3. Drupal 5: administer throttle at administer >> Site configuration >> throttle
  4. Drupal 6: administer throttle at administer >> settings >> throttle.

As of Drupal 7, the Throttle module has been removed from core.

Comments

idcm’s picture

Is there another module like throttle that can be used? Why was it removed from D7? Just curious.

1kenthomas’s picture

^^ It would be nice to know what happened to throttle in D7, and why. I've got sites in D5 and D6 that just wouldn't run without it...

moshe weitzman’s picture

Shunt is very similar, and well maintained - https://www.drupal.org/project/shunt

IbnDrupal’s picture

For those asking what happened to throttle, this may answer your question

http://www.computerminds.co.uk/articles/goodbye-throttle-module

1kenthomas’s picture

Thanks. Recently found that article, whose links led me back here :). My guess is that a throttle contrib, would still be useful ;).