Server overloaded

K

Kod

Verified User
Joined
May 5, 2005
Messages
38
Location
France
Hello everyone,

I'm having a hard time figuring out why the server load suddenly changes from 0.80 average to 102.00 on a FC4 2.66Ghz Celeron 1GB RAM.

The server got stuck for the second time this week and i can't find why.

apache-status isn't showing anything useful, neither error_logs, acess_logs, or messages

The only thing i have noticed is the number of mysql and httpd processes increasing suddenly and very quickly.
Anyone experienced this before or any one knows how to find which site/domain is causing this overload ?

Thanks.
 
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Without logging into the server it'd be nearly impossible for any of us to guesstimate why your loads are spiking. Perhaps it's heavy apache traffic - maybe a huge mailing list being processed - or maybe a rouge bindshell bringing your system to a halt.

Have you monitored /server-status and monitored TOP to see what's running heavy when this occurs?
 
Hi there,

I can't get anything out of apache-status since I can't access it when the server is overloaded, however, i have noticed mysql and httpd eating too much CPU on TOP.

I have checked for some cron jobs that might be misconfigured also, nothing there.

There is one site causing this but i can't find which ont it can be amongst 350 others.
 
If you'd like me to take a look at it, please PM me your root login information ... else you'll need to contact a server management company to track it down.
 
Most often we find memory to be the culprit. How much swap memory is in use when you have the problem?

Jeff
 
Thanks hostpc but sorry about the root and stuff... I never do that with my boxes.

Hi Jeff,

It just happened once that swap use got higher at the same time as the load avg. I don't think the swap mem is lacking though.

Here are the 2 graphs, load and swap


Load

Swap

I still believe it must be some script or php running or some site eating up all ressources.

Thanks for any help/ideas
 
The problem with swap memory is that if any is used at all, it's possible that processes in use are busy swapping in and out.

Another problem we've found lately is when a lot of emails are being sent, and refused, load goes up.

We had major problems on one of our server because one client's domain was forged in spam, and he was trying to send back thousands of spams to undeliverable addresses.

He got rid of his catchall, and we got rid of all frozen messages. Problem solved.

Jeff
 
Hi,

The problem was a corrupt database causing mysql processes to increase.

The site causing this has been moved and the server seems to be more stale now.

I'll watch the mail queue also, just in case.

Thanks
 
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