[users@httpd] Apache 1.3.26/Debian 3.0 Process spawn runaway

[Morgan Collett <mc...@verisign.com>]

Hiya

We're running Debian 3.0 with Apache 1.3.26 (the stock deb package)
and are encountering the following problem:

Twice a week or so, the site stops responding. We ssh in to find the
load on the box very high (as much as 200!) with a ton of apache
processes (200-300). Restarting apache fixes this problem
immediately.

Unfortunately it is a production server, so we can't keep it in this
condition for detailed troubleshooting... and we can't reproduce the problem
on another system.

I've searched MARC and googled for various things like "apache process load"
but have not found anything remotely relevant. What can you suggest to
troubleshoot this probem?

The following apache modules are installed - all stock Debian stuff:

LoadModule env_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_env.so
LoadModule config_log_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_log_config.so
LoadModule rewrite_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_rewrite.so
LoadModule mime_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_mime.so
LoadModule negotiation_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_negotiation.so
LoadModule includes_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_include.so
LoadModule autoindex_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_autoindex.so
LoadModule dir_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_dir.so
LoadModule cgi_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_cgi.so
LoadModule alias_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_alias.so
LoadModule access_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_access.so
LoadModule auth_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_auth.so
LoadModule auth_mysql_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_auth_mysql.so
LoadModule expires_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_expires.so
LoadModule setenvif_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_setenvif.so
LoadModule ssl_module /usr/lib/apache/1.3/mod_ssl.so

The following other config parameters may be of interest:
Timeout 300
MinSpareServers 15
MaxSpareServers 35
StartServers 30
MaxClients 300
MaxRequestsPerChild 50
KeepAlive On
MaxKeepAliveRequests 100
KeepAliveTimeout 15

The hardware:
Dell PowerEdge 6650 / 4 GB RAM / 4 P4 Xeon CPUs

Linux kernel:
2.4.18

Thanks!

Morgan


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