diff --git a/django/db/utils.py b/django/db/utils.py
index 936b42039d..e84060f9b3 100644
--- a/django/db/utils.py
+++ b/django/db/utils.py
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ class ConnectionHandler(object):
conn.setdefault('ENGINE', 'django.db.backends.dummy')
if conn['ENGINE'] == 'django.db.backends.' or not conn['ENGINE']:
conn['ENGINE'] = 'django.db.backends.dummy'
- conn.setdefault('CONN_MAX_AGE', 600)
+ conn.setdefault('CONN_MAX_AGE', 0)
conn.setdefault('OPTIONS', {})
conn.setdefault('TIME_ZONE', 'UTC' if settings.USE_TZ else settings.TIME_ZONE)
for setting in ['NAME', 'USER', 'PASSWORD', 'HOST', 'PORT']:
diff --git a/docs/howto/deployment/checklist.txt b/docs/howto/deployment/checklist.txt
index b092048870..b72be75497 100644
--- a/docs/howto/deployment/checklist.txt
+++ b/docs/howto/deployment/checklist.txt
@@ -157,6 +157,15 @@ Performance optimizations
Setting :setting:`DEBUG = False <DEBUG>` disables several features that are
only useful in development. In addition, you can tune the following settings.
+:setting:`CONN_MAX_AGE`
+-----------------------
+
+Enabling `persistent database connections <persistent-database-connections>`_
+can result in a nice speed-up when connecting to the database accounts for a
+significant part of the request processing time.
+
+This helps a lot on virtualized hosts with limited network performance.
+
:setting:`TEMPLATE_LOADERS`
---------------------------
diff --git a/docs/ref/databases.txt b/docs/ref/databases.txt
index 2ef048216f..7555acaaba 100644
--- a/docs/ref/databases.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/databases.txt
@@ -22,14 +22,14 @@ Persistent connections
.. versionadded:: 1.6
Persistent connections avoid the overhead of re-establishing a connection to
-the database in each request. By default, connections are kept open for up 10
-minutes — if not specified, :setting:`CONN_MAX_AGE` defaults to 600 seconds.
+the database in each request. They're controlled by the
+:setting:`CONN_MAX_AGE` parameter which defines the maximum lifetime of a
+connection. It can be set independently for each database.
-Django 1.5 and earlier didn't have persistent connections. To restore the
-legacy behavior of closing the connection at the end of every request, set
-:setting:`CONN_MAX_AGE` to ``0``.
-
-For unlimited persistent connections, set :setting:`CONN_MAX_AGE` to ``None``.
+The default value is ``0``, preserving the historical behavior of closing the
+database connection at the end of each request. To enable persistent
+connections, set :setting:`CONN_MAX_AGE` to a positive number of seconds. For
+unlimited persistent connections, set it to ``None``.
Connection management
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@@ -64,13 +64,22 @@ least as many simultaneous connections as you have worker threads.
Sometimes a database won't be accessed by the majority of your views, for
example because it's the database of an external system, or thanks to caching.
-In such cases, you should set :setting:`CONN_MAX_AGE` to a lower value, or
-even ``0``, because it doesn't make sense to maintain a connection that's
-unlikely to be reused. This will help keep the number of simultaneous
-connections to this database small.
+In such cases, you should set :setting:`CONN_MAX_AGE` to a low value or even
+``0``, because it doesn't make sense to maintain a connection that's unlikely
+to be reused. This will help keep the number of simultaneous connections to
+this database small.
The development server creates a new thread for each request it handles,
-negating the effect of persistent connections.
+negating the effect of persistent connections. Don't enable them during
+development.
+
+When Django establishes a connection to the database, it sets up appropriate
+parameters, depending on the backend being used. If you enable persistent
+connections, this setup is no longer repeated every request. If you modify
+parameters such as the connection's isolation level or time zone, you should
+either restore Django's defaults at the end of each request, force an
+appropriate value at the beginning of each request, or disable persistent
+connections.
.. _postgresql-notes:
diff --git a/docs/ref/settings.txt b/docs/ref/settings.txt
index f2d418d4d9..04b42aeeb2 100644
--- a/docs/ref/settings.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/settings.txt
@@ -509,7 +509,7 @@ CONN_MAX_AGE
.. versionadded:: 1.6
-Default: ``600``
+Default: ``0``
The lifetime of a database connection, in seconds. Use ``0`` to close database
connections at the end of each request — Django's historical behavior — and
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.6.txt b/docs/releases/1.6.txt
index 3e15f5b767..611b661415 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.6.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.6.txt
@@ -66,13 +66,8 @@ Persistent database connections
Django now supports reusing the same database connection for several requests.
This avoids the overhead of re-establishing a connection at the beginning of
-each request.
-
-By default, database connections will kept open for 10 minutes. This behavior
-is controlled by the :setting:`CONN_MAX_AGE` setting. To restore the previous
-behavior of closing the connection at the end of each request, set
-:setting:`CONN_MAX_AGE` to ``0``. See :ref:`persistent-database-connections`
-for details.
+each request. For backwards compatibility, this feature is disabled by
+default. See :ref:`persistent-database-connections` for details.
Time zone aware aggregation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@@ -298,21 +293,6 @@ Django 1.6 introduces ``hour``, ``minute``, and ``second`` lookups on
``hour``, ``minute``, or ``second``, the new lookups will clash with you field
names. Append an explicit :lookup:`exact` lookup if this is an issue.
-Persistent database connections
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-Connection setup not repeated for each request
-^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-
-When Django establishes a connection to the database, it sets up appropriate
-parameters, depending on the backend being used. Since `persistent database
-connections <persistent-database-connections>`_ are enabled by default in
-Django 1.6, this setup isn't repeated at every request any more. If you
-modifiy parameters such as the connection's isolation level or time zone, you
-should either restore Django's defaults at the end of each request, force an
-appropriate value at the beginning of each request, or disable persistent
-connections.
-
``BooleanField`` no longer defaults to ``False``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~