<defunct> followed by random spikes

[sokolkapl]

Hi,

I'm struggling to find what is causing <defunct> in my httpd on my VPS. Basically, from time to time I see <defunct> (please see attached screenshot). The server also tends to spike shortly to 0.27s averages throughout the day and eat up memory.

There is nothing in system (messages) logs nor error log of apache.

I've tried reinstalling apache thinking something went wrong with installation but it does not look like it.

 

[LawsHosting]

defunc usually means idle apache nodes/spawns closing, but don't quote me on that....... I have only encountered these myself on an old VPS I had...

 

[nobaloney]

This article, while focused on FreeBSD, is useful for understanding defunct processes on Linux as well.

Jeff

 

[toml]

A process becomes defunct or a zombie when the calling process (httpd) starts it, the child exits (or dies) and the parent process doesn't reap the child process (gets notified of the child process status via SIGCHLD handler or waitpid()). It shouldn't cause any other problems, unless you are running out of processes, since that is the only resource it still holds.