Insane server loads with apache

[u2mike]

Hi,

I ran into a small problem today. All of a sudden all the websites I host slowed to a crawl. After loging in via SSH I found the load averages where in the 60's. Although cpu usage and memory usage were completely normal. Once I restarted httpd the load averages quickly returned to ~0.30

I've looked over all the error logs I could and theres nothing notable, the apache error log didn't record anything abnormal at the time this occoured. Any idea's on what to do about this?

I'm on CentOS 3.1 if that helps.

 

[jmstacey]

There is a domain monitoring tool located in the 3rd party forums which may help you. It collects load averages on a domain basis. If/when load spikes again and it is being caused a particular user, you may be able to pinpoint it.

 

[kubi]

What version of apache are you running? If you're running 2.x under a heavy load it seems to take more of a toll on your machine than 1.3. If you're running 1.3 I don't have any suggestions.

 

[u2mike]

I have it fixed now. What was happening is we were running low on ram, so every so often the swap space was being used. The kernel I was using at the time had some small issues which caused iowait when ever anything slightly disk intesive started. I have a new kernel and everythings good.