[CentOS] Web server becoming unresponsive : high load

Fri Mar 11 18:47:50 UTC 2011
m.roth at 5-cent.us <m.roth at 5-cent.us>

robert mena wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a web server which is randomly becoming unresponsive.   I've
> checked for hardware problems with no luck :
> - no ethernet errors
> - no disk errors
> - no memory errors
>
> So far I've managed to point the trouble at the web server since if I
> restart httpd (apache) it comes back to normal.
>
> This is not a shared server so I control (or at least like to think of)
> what is hosted so I have two suspects:
> a) my own code is behaving strangely.   For example, a php script that in
> a given situation/parameters increases the usage.
> b) some sort of attack.  Either in conjunction to a or other
> vulnerability.

You said you've checked for hardware errors, Robert - how 'bout other
errors. For example, when it becomes unresponsive, what's top or free tell
you?

          mark