libapache2-mod-php5 will consume all available memory when installed and activated

[mayukmok00]

Hi,

We have an issue with php not properly interpreting the scripts. Installing the package libapache2-mod-php5 solved our issue but the problem is it will eat all the memory (swap and physical memory). The issue is always reproduced when the package is installed.

Details of the OS are shown below. The server is a guest on a VPS

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=lucid
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS"

These are the apache logs that I got when the package was installed.

[Tue Oct 12 15:28:09 2010] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu) DAV/2 SVN/1.6.6 mod_fcgid/2.3.4 PHP/5.3.2-1ubuntu4.5 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ruby/1.2.6 Ruby/1.8.7(2010-01-10) mod_ssl/2.2.14 OpenSSL/0.9.8k configured -- resuming normal operations
[Tue Oct 12 15:28:56 2010] [error] server reached MaxClients setting, consider raising the MaxClients setting
[Tue Oct 12 15:29:12 2010] [error] mod_fcgid: fcgid process manager died, restarting the server
[Tue Oct 12 15:29:31 2010] [warn] child process 7365 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:29 2010] [warn] child process 7367 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:29 2010] [warn] child process 7375 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:29 2010] [warn] child process 7378 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:29 2010] [warn] child process 7401 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:29 2010] [warn] child process 7384 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:29 2010] [warn] child process 7387 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:29 2010] [warn] child process 7389 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:29 2010] [warn] child process 7390 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:29 2010] [warn] child process 7415 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:29 2010] [warn] child process 7421 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:45 2010] [warn] child process 7450 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:46 2010] [warn] child process 7401 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:47 2010] [notice] SIGHUP received. Attempting to restart
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:50 2010] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:50 2010] [notice] Digest: done
PHP Deprecated: Comments starting with '#' are deprecated in /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/mcrypt.ini on line 1 in Unknown on line 0
[Tue Oct 12 15:30:53 2010] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu) DAV/2 SVN/1.6.6 mod_fcgid/2.3.4 PHP/5.3.2-1ubuntu4.5 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ruby/1.2.6 Ruby/1.8.7(2010-01-10) mod_ssl/2.2.14 OpenSSL/0.9.8k configured -- resuming normal operations
[Tue Oct 12 15:32:25 2010] [error] mod_fcgid: fcgid process manager died, restarting the server
[Tue Oct 12 15:32:36 2010] [warn] child process 7780 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:32:36 2010] [warn] child process 7782 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:32:36 2010] [warn] child process 7783 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:32:36 2010] [warn] child process 7789 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:32:36 2010] [warn] child process 7792 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:32:36 2010] [warn] child process 7793 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:32:36 2010] [warn] child process 7796 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:32:36 2010] [warn] child process 7797 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Tue Oct 12 15:32:36 2010] [warn] child process 7798 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM

[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8043 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 7877 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 7881 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8044 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8082 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8083 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8084 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8101 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8102 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8106 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8117 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8118 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8120 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8121 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8123 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8124 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8131 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8132 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8700 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8701 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8707 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8709 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8710 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8713 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8714 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8732 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8734 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8744 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8747 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8773 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8757 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8759 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8763 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8764 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [error] could not make child process 8776 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:54 2010] [notice] SIGHUP received. Attempting to restart
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:58 2010] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...
[Tue Oct 12 15:33:58 2010] [notice] Digest: done

Please advice.

Thank you

[Clint Byrum (clint-fewbar)]

Hello mayukmok00, thanks so much for taking the time to file this bug report and help make Ubuntu better!

The logs I see above don't help very much in determining what happened to your server. However these two lines are very telling:

[Tue Oct 12 15:28:09 2010] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu) DAV/2 SVN/1.6.6 mod_fcgid/2.3.4 PHP/5.3.2-1ubuntu4.5 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ruby/1.2.6 Ruby/1.8.7(2010-01-10) mod_ssl/2.2.14 OpenSSL/0.9.8k configured -- resuming normal operations
[Tue Oct 12 15:28:56 2010] [error] server reached MaxClients setting, consider raising the MaxClients setting

The sever reached MaxClients in under 60 seconds of uptime. Also I see PHP, fcgid, and Ruby all in this one server, so its possible other things are using up all of the RAM.

In short, I believe this may be due to the web applications you are serving, not any bug in php.

Can you repeat the sequence which causes the problems on a machine that is not serving heavy production traffic? Also something that would be useful would be the output of:

ps auxww | grep www-data

Which should show the running swelled up processes.

Thanks!

Marking Incomplete pending response from mayukmok00

[mayukmok00 (mayukmok00)]

Hi Clint,

I will try to reproduce the issue with a physically hosted machine. What I have observe is when that package is installed the memory will all rise up causing the server to be unresponsive.

Will check it again and will give feedback.

Thanks

[mayukmok00 (mayukmok00)]

Hi Clint,

Found out that since the system is in vps then was updated to ubuntu must have broke the system.

We re-installed and be more careful with the kernel used since vps has its own kernel or ubuntu.

Thank you

[Clint Byrum (clint-fewbar)]

mayukmok00, thanks for getting back to me.

At this point I think my hunch is correct that the system is working properly, and is just overloaded.

Closing as Invalid.