PHP4 stability and testing

joelunch · 09-14-2007, 12:01 AM

We have 2 almost identical servers running uptodate Centos 4.x. One seems to be having stability issues with PHP (4.3.9).

We can't find any difference between the two systems. On one we have client reports of PHP having issues and we are experiencing random errors running Cacti - after a random time it will simply log us out.

Are there some PHP load/stress testing applications/scripts to see if our PHP install is stable? Or where might we begin to troubleshoot how our php install is causing issues?

Thanks heaps,

Joe

thedonkdonk · 09-14-2007, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joelunch

after a random time it will simply log us out.

Did you check to make sure your php.ini file is the same. Check to make sure your session.save_path is writeable by apache.

Thanks,
James Glenn
thedonkdonk.net

Scroggs79 · 09-14-2007, 12:55 AM

Also run the php_info(); command on both and compare the output.

joelunch · 09-14-2007, 03:13 AM

Yeah I've closely compared and matched up the php.ini, httpd.conf and the my.cnf on the dodgy machine and still the same issues occur. I've also tried removing the php modules and still have the issue.

The session.save_path appears readable as it is full of sess_.. files from today.

One slight difference is the following
apache module mod_webapp
Anyone know what it does? Is it needed? (XSTL wouldn't be needed would it - that isn't on the faulty machine)

andyccn · 09-15-2007, 11:07 AM

Unless you're using some form of XML transformations using PHP, I can't imagine that XSLT would be needed.
As for mod_webapp, it looks to be a sort of HTTP stack between Apache and Tomcat. If you're not using Java on your servers, I'd disable it.

http://people.apache.org/~jfclere/webapp_docs/ <- WebApp Module

joelunch · 09-16-2007, 06:45 PM

Any other ideas for testing the stability of PHP and seeing what might be the cause?

andyccn · 09-17-2007, 01:02 PM

Have you disabled mod_webapp?

PHP 4.3 is quite dated now (in fact PHP4 will be end-of-life'd by the end of the year.)
Try the latest version of PHP4 - 4.4.7, and get your application in testing/development for PHP5.

Also turn on PHP debugging to log to a file, and when the application logs you out/stops doing what it should, check the debug logs and your Apache error logfile.