nginx reverse proxy causing TCP queuing spikes

[Grant]

>> I do think this is related to 'proxy_read_timeout 60m;' leaving too
>> many connections open.  Can I somehow allow pages to load for up to
>> 60m but not bog my server down with too many connections?
>
> Pardon me, but why on earth do you have an environment in which an HTTP request can take an hour? That seems like a serious abuse of the protocol.
>
> Keeping an HTTP request open means keeping the associated TCP connection open as well. If you have connections open for an hour, you're probably going to run into concurrency issues.


I don't actually need 60m but I do need up to about 20m for some
backend administrative processes.  What is the right way to solve this
problem?  I don't think I can speed up the processes.

- Grant