Apache Keeps Hanging

[nick-harper]

Hi guys,

my server keeps coming to a standstill.

I have to reboot it every couple of hours.

When I check the logs I have loads of this:

[Sat Oct 23 19:18:34 2010] [error] child process 5960 still did not exit, sending a SIGKILL
[Sat Oct 23 19:18:34 2010] [error] child process 5965 still did not exit, sending a SIGKILL
[Sat Oct 23 19:18:34 2010] [error] child process 5966 still did not exit, sending a SIGKILL
[Sat Oct 23 19:18:34 2010] [error] child process 5967 still did not exit, sending a SIGKILL
[Sat Oct 23 19:18:34 2010] [error] child process 5969 still did not exit, sending a SIGKILL
[Sat Oct 23 19:18:34 2010] [error] child process 5970 still did not exit, sending a SIGKILL
[Sat Oct 23 19:18:34 2010] [error] child process 6014 still did not exit, sending a SIGKILL
[Sat Oct 23 19:18:34 2010] [error] child process 6021 still did not exit, sending a SIGKILL
[Sat Oct 23 19:18:34 2010] [error] child process 6024 still did not exit, sending a SIGKILL

and

[Sat Oct 23 19:18:23 2010] [error] mod_fcgid: fcgid process manager died, restarting the server

Is this a problem with Apache?

 

[subigo]

Are you getting any errors in the log about MaxClients? Are you running out of RAM? What OS is it?

 

[nick-harper]

My Max Clients is at 250.

Could it be an attack?

It is CentOS with Plesk.

 

[alphys]

it can be an attack, or you have messed with the max clients stuff

 

[subigo]

Enable your server-status page in the httpd.conf file and then check it in your browser. Check there for more information.

 

[nick-harper]

The server is down at the min

I did this last night though and had a lot of these :

OPTIONS * HTTP/1.0

 

[imkazu]

tail -f your log file,
are you getting unusual traffic form you site ? in your log file, see if you are hit from a specific range and if so, block them from your .htaccess or /etc/hosts.deny file