Apache overloading the server

mobinskariya · 04-01-2010, 01:09 PM

Hi all

Apache is overloading the server executing as the user nobody. Below I give the output of top -c

Code:

top - 14:03:16 up 12 days, 43 min,  5 users,  load average: 11.60, 12.15, 15.18
Tasks: 412 total,   5 running, 405 sleeping,   0 stopped,   2 zombie
Cpu(s): 13.5%us,  5.8%sy,  0.0%ni, 61.0%id, 19.2%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.4%si,  0.1%st
Mem:   8388724k total,  8213472k used,   175252k free,   965044k buffers
Swap:        0k total,        0k used,        0k free,  3853248k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
25454 davidjh   17   0  137m  16m 7248 R  4.6  0.2   0:00.14 /usr/bin/php /home/davidjh/public_html/allaboutledtv.com/index.php
25418 dawnsie1  16   0  101m  39m 2276 D  2.7  0.5   0:00.69 spamd child
25323 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1772 S  1.7  0.8   0:00.11 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25174 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1748 S  1.3  0.8   0:00.11 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25195 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1816 S  1.3  0.8   0:00.15 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25266 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1772 S  1.3  0.8   0:00.17 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25298 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1796 S  1.3  0.8   0:00.11 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25177 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1816 S  1.0  0.8   0:00.11 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25227 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1752 S  1.0  0.8   0:00.13 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25265 nobody    15   0     0    0    0 Z  1.0  0.0   0:00.09 [httpd] <defunct>
25300 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1612 S  1.0  0.8   0:00.13 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25304 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1612 S  1.0  0.8   0:00.14 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25309 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1612 S  1.0  0.8   0:00.10 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25310 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1748 S  1.0  0.8   0:00.15 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
16378 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1832 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.57 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
18351 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1964 S  0.7  0.8   0:01.78 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
20687 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1832 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.94 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
20753 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1840 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.85 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
21904 root      16   0 13012 1384  816 S  0.7  0.0   0:00.54 top -c
23240 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1820 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.61 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
23274 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1748 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.37 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25171 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1612 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.13 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25180 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1748 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.12 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25187 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1812 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.11 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25190 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1812 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.14 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25193 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1748 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.10 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25202 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1616 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.13 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25207 nobody    15   0  175m  66m 1820 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.15 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start
25218 nobody    15   0  175m  65m 1612 S  0.7  0.8   0:00.09 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start

What might be the possible reason for overloading. I can give more visibility to this if required

TIA

Mobin Skariya

Harlin · 04-01-2010, 02:05 PM

You can cut down on the number of threads that will run. A few questions for you...

1. Is this an in-production web server?
2. How many concurrent users do you normally see?
3. Are you by any chance using any of the proxy or redirect modules?

mobinskariya · 04-01-2010, 02:46 PM

Hi Harlin

thanks for the reply. this is a cpanel server. Normally the cpu load stays below 5 with a maximum of 5 concurrent users.