httpd using hundreds of mb memory
5,066
Solution 1
each consuming ~150mb of memory (according to top's 'RES' column).
That's not a good way to measure a processes memory usage, as explained in lots of places.
This very quickly crashes my server
If your system is running out of memory then you've configured it wrongly. Try measuring the memory usage properly and limit the number of servers first, then you can start to tune the installation.
What can I do to fix this
You're not going to get an answer here - there are too many questions and information that would need to be collected. Start by getting a handle on what's really happenning with the memory and the performance of the system read lots, read some more, establish a mechanism for collecting metrics, for preference set up a test environment where you can try out different configurations / loads quickly, then start tuning.
Solution 2
There could be a lot of reasons why this happens. As someone who works in a hosting data center, I would primarily doubt & ask the logs for the below:
- There could be a memory leak in the drupal site code - Run this script & post the results here.
- The website could have been hacked. So check the permissions of the running apache processes.
We can narrow down after you post the memory usage results.
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DevOps & SysAdmins: httpd using hundreds of mb memory (3 Solutions!!)
Author by
aaronsnoswell
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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aaronsnoswell almost 2 years
I have a MediaTemple (dv) 4 server with 512mb running Apache 2.2.21 64-bit.
Within 60 seconds of starting, httpd is spawning 2-4 processes, each consuming ~150mb of memory (according to top's 'RES' column). This very quickly crashes my server. By 'crashes' I mean all urls start timing out, as a result I cannot log into the attached plask panel. Additionally, ssh no longer works (connection times out) and the real-time stats provided by MediaTemple stop working also. So far the only fix I've found is to restart the server. Apache is running PHP (Zend Engine 2.3.0) serving a simple Drupal install.
I've tried a few suggestions on the media temple wiki with no improvement.
- What could be causing httpd to consume this much memory?
- Is this atypical behaviour?
- What can I do to fix this and restore the server to a usable state?
I'm happy to post server details, logs etc as requested.
EDIT: I should have mentioned earlier, this server has been running fine for 4 months or so, and has only started sporadically crashing like this in the past month. I'm hoping to ascertain if this is simply due to increased Drupal loading, or some other (potentially more malicious) issue.
EDIT: As requested, here's the output of running ps_mem.py today.
-bash-3.2$ wget http://www.pixelbeat.org/scripts/ps_mem.py -bash-3.2$ sudo python ps_mem.py Private + Shared = RAM used Program 92.0 KiB + 12.0 KiB = 104.0 KiB qmail-clean 96.0 KiB + 14.0 KiB = 110.0 KiB splogger 116.0 KiB + 23.0 KiB = 139.0 KiB init 128.0 KiB + 12.0 KiB = 140.0 KiB qmail-rspawn 124.0 KiB + 16.0 KiB = 140.0 KiB syslogd 132.0 KiB + 12.0 KiB = 144.0 KiB qmail-lspawn 148.0 KiB + 13.0 KiB = 161.0 KiB qmail-send 208.0 KiB + 28.5 KiB = 236.5 KiB dbus-daemon 232.0 KiB + 36.5 KiB = 268.5 KiB xinetd 240.0 KiB + 32.5 KiB = 272.5 KiB mysqld_safe 328.0 KiB + 20.5 KiB = 348.5 KiB udevd 348.0 KiB + 66.0 KiB = 414.0 KiB courierlogger (4) 444.0 KiB + 85.5 KiB = 529.5 KiB bash 480.0 KiB + 50.0 KiB = 530.0 KiB xfs 592.0 KiB + 36.0 KiB = 628.0 KiB crond 544.0 KiB + 114.0 KiB = 658.0 KiB couriertcpd (4) 1.3 MiB + 82.5 KiB = 1.4 MiB sw-cp-serverd 1.2 MiB + 1.1 MiB = 2.3 MiB sshd (3) 3.1 MiB + 205.5 KiB = 3.3 MiB named 3.9 MiB + 48.2 MiB = 52.1 MiB spamd (2) 63.7 MiB + 387.0 KiB = 64.1 MiB mysqld 108.3 MiB + 9.2 MiB = 117.5 MiB httpd (7) --------------------------------- 245.4 MiB =================================A top snapshot, showing one httpd service running as root, others running as the apache user. Is this (one root process) typical?
-bash-3.2$ top -b -n 1 top - 17:09:34 up 27 days, 18:04, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 Tasks: 38 total, 1 running, 37 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni,100.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 946344k total, 581372k used, 364972k free, 0k buffers Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 0k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 21727 root 15 0 114m 52m 2112 S 0.0 5.6 0:09.17 spamd 21728 popuser 18 0 114m 50m 972 S 0.0 5.5 0:00.00 spamd 28112 apache 18 0 135m 3612 484 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.03 httpd 28110 root 18 0 259m 15m 8284 S 0.0 1.7 0:00.21 httpd 31854 apache 15 0 259m 9368 1492 S 0.0 1.0 0:00.00 httpd 28113 apache 15 0 260m 9400 1508 S 0.0 1.0 0:00.03 httpd 31853 apache 15 0 260m 9368 1484 S 0.0 1.0 0:00.00 httpd 5599 named 18 0 301m 5112 1976 S 0.0 0.5 0:00.51 named 31851 apache 15 0 309m 61m 4004 S 0.0 6.7 0:01.13 httpd 28124 apache 18 0 312m 63m 4996 S 0.0 6.8 0:03.92 httpd 1865 mysql 15 0 358m 70m 7112 S 0.0 7.6 5:52.36 mysqld 5824 root 18 0 3808 560 472 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 courierlogger 5834 root 18 0 3808 556 472 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 courierlogger 5842 root 18 0 3808 564 472 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.15 courierlogger 5851 root 18 0 3808 556 472 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 courierlogger 7255 qmailq 18 0 3812 428 344 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 qmail-clean 7252 qmaill 18 0 3816 556 468 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 splogger 7253 root 16 0 3856 468 352 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 qmail-lspawn 7254 qmailr 15 0 3856 472 356 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 qmail-rspawn 7250 qmails 15 0 3864 564 456 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.07 qmail-send 1418 root 15 0 5928 624 500 S 0.0 0.1 0:10.71 syslogd 1 root 18 0 10368 736 620 S 0.0 0.1 0:05.61 init 1695 root 18 0 10784 1300 1060 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.01 mysqld_safe 31869 serverad 15 0 12080 1716 1324 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.02 bash 31976 serverad 15 0 12624 1120 872 R 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 top 1123 root 15 -4 12636 684 356 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 udevd 5822 root 17 0 13188 612 476 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 couriertcpd 5832 root 15 0 13188 612 476 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 couriertcpd 5840 root 15 0 13188 612 476 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.46 couriertcpd 5849 root 18 0 13188 612 476 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 couriertcpd 3077 xfs 15 0 20276 1272 792 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 xfs 2035 root 15 0 20892 1180 588 S 0.0 0.1 0:04.17 crond 1427 dbus 19 0 21276 700 492 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 dbus-daemon 3523 root 15 0 21664 944 712 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 xinetd 28213 sw-cp-se 18 0 59512 2728 1420 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.03 sw-cp-serverd 1504 root 15 0 62680 1228 660 S 0.0 0.1 1:54.58 sshd 31866 root 15 0 96624 3704 2852 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.02 sshd 31868 serverad 15 0 96624 1892 1012 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.04 sshd... and some memory stats according to ps.
-bash-3.2$ ps aux | sort -nk +4 | tail named 5599 0.0 0.5 308484 5112 ? Ssl Jul24 0:00 /usr/sbin/named -u named -c /etc/named.conf -u named -t /var/named/run-root apache 28113 0.0 0.9 266364 9400 ? S 05:15 0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd apache 31853 0.0 0.9 266364 9368 ? S 16:08 0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd apache 31854 0.0 0.9 266228 9368 ? S 16:09 0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd root 28110 0.0 1.6 266092 16028 ? Ss 05:15 0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd popuser 21728 0.0 5.5 117128 52164 ? S Jul07 0:00 spamd child root 21727 0.0 5.6 117128 53304 ? Ss Jul07 0:09 /usr/bin/spamd --username=popuser --daemonize --nouser-config --helper-home-dir=/var/qmail --max-children 1 --pidfile=/var/run/spamd/spamd_full.pid --socketpath=/tmp/spamd_full.sock apache 31851 0.0 6.6 317320 63324 ? S 16:08 0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd apache 28124 0.0 6.8 319536 64604 ? S 05:15 0:03 /usr/sbin/httpd mysql 1865 0.0 7.6 367604 72376 ? Sl Jul04 5:52 /usr/libexec/mysqld --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --user=mysql --log-error=/var/log/mysqld.log --pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid --socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock --port=3306Some potentially relevant snippets from httpd.conf (after adjusting prefork settings).
-bash-3.2$ head httpd.conf -n 128 | tail -60 # # Timeout: The number of seconds before receives and sends time out. # Timeout 20 # # KeepAlive: Whether or not to allow persistent connections (more than # one request per connection). Set to "Off" to deactivate. # KeepAlive Off # # MaxKeepAliveRequests: The maximum number of requests to allow # during a persistent connection. Set to 0 to allow an unlimited amount. # We recommend you leave this number high, for maximum performance. # MaxKeepAliveRequests 100 # # KeepAliveTimeout: Number of seconds to wait for the next request from the # same client on the same connection. # KeepAliveTimeout 15 ## ## Server-Pool Size Regulation (MPM specific) ## # prefork MPM # StartServers: number of server processes to start # MinSpareServers: minimum number of server processes which are kept spare # MaxSpareServers: maximum number of server processes which are kept spare # ServerLimit: maximum value for MaxClients for the lifetime of the server # MaxClients: maximum number of server processes allowed to start # MaxRequestsPerChild: maximum number of requests a server process serves <IfModule prefork.c> StartServers 2 MinSpareServers 3 MaxSpareServers 5 ServerLimit 16 MaxClients 16 MaxRequestsPerChild 400000 </IfModule> # worker MPM # StartServers: initial number of server processes to start # MaxClients: maximum number of simultaneous client connections # MinSpareThreads: minimum number of worker threads which are kept spare # MaxSpareThreads: maximum number of worker threads which are kept spare # ThreadsPerChild: constant number of worker threads in each server process # MaxRequestsPerChild: maximum number of requests a server process serves <IfModule worker.c> StartServers 1 MaxClients 50 MinSpareThreads 25 MaxSpareThreads 75 ThreadsPerChild 25 MaxRequestsPerChild 0 </IfModule>Thanks!
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user207421 almost 12 yearsYou need to at least double that memory, more likely quadruple it, to get any useful work out of it as an Apache server, let alone a Drupal server (which implies a database as well). My laptop has four times that, and that's not enough.
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David Schwartz almost 12 yearsYour system has 512MB of physical memory as seen by the VM. Each Apache server is consuming 150MB of virtual memory as seen by the VM. You are comparing measurements of very different things. Most likely, that has nothing to do with why your server is crashing. If you want to solve the actual problem, tell us more about it. What precisely happens when your server crashes?
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aaronsnoswell almost 12 years@EJP - I was afraid of that possibility, however the sporadic memory issues have only started manifesting recently (past month); apache has been fine for at least 4 months prior. I should have mentioned this in my question. Whether this is simply due to increased Drupal load, or some other issue is what I hope to determine.
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Anthony Hatzopoulos almost 12 yearsAny chance these issues started happening after a major plesk upgrade?
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Anthony Hatzopoulos almost 12 years@aaronsnoswell If your not using bind/named you can disable it for a bit of memory gains. Same goes for spamd, if your not really using or caring for spam assassin you could disable it too.
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aaronsnoswell almost 12 yearsThanks for the suggestions - A memory leak or hacked server were my two suspicions. Whilst I realise it probably wouldn't make much difference to someone deliberately trying to be malicious, for what it's worth, the server is not 'public' per se - the domain is (hopefully) known only to me. I've posted the script's output, as well as some memory stats taken today.
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aaronsnoswell almost 12 yearsThanks for the suggestions - I went in and changed the relevant config vars - see the revised question. Not sure yet if this has helped at all.
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aaronsnoswell almost 12 yearsUntil today I wasn't aware of any other ways of measuring memory than ps or top, thanks for inciting me to look for other ways (as per @deppfx's answer, I've added the results of the ps_mem.py script. I'm currently trying to set up a means for getting some better analytics going. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of my work, I don't think I'm going to be able to set up a dedicated test environment.
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Anthony Hatzopoulos almost 12 years@deppfx I'm also curious if you see anything suspicious or otherwise something OP could optimize after seeing his update after running the python script.
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deppfx almost 12 years@AnthonyHatzopoulos Apache has been using 117 MB of memory which I think is normal. The reason why apache is dying could be something else & not memory. I would suggest to log in to the server &
tailthe httpd error logs and paste the output here just when it dies. If that's not possible, note the timestamp when the httpd dies, look into the logs & also checksaroutput for that particular time to reconfirm that its not memory that's killing apache.-- My $0.02
