weird server.weird load....need desperate help
i am facing this serious problem of load average since months now.
suddenly in the middle of the night the load shoots to 20 -30 and then server goes down.,
ive hired 3 admins till date and they all failed at finding a solution.
im really hoping you guys here can help me.
i am showing u guys my server details below.
can you please tell me what tests to perform to see if whats the problem.
also please advice me on if my hardware needs an upgrade.
monthy traffic on server: 250 GB.
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 8
model name : Pentium III (Coppermine)
stepping : 10
cpu MHz : 1000.031
cache size : 256 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse
bogomips : 1992.29
---------
183 processes: 167 sleeping, 6 running, 0 zombie, 10 stopped
CPU states: 57.0% user, 15.6% system, 0.0% nice, 27.3% idle
Mem: 515528K av, 251104K used, 264424K free, 0K shrd, 10388K buff
Swap: 2076688K av, 0K used, 2076688K free 109844K cached
PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME COMMAND
32659 nobody 18 0 8124 8124 3340 R 10.6 1.5 0:06 httpd
1162 nobody 16 0 5432 5432 3328 S 5.3 1.0 0:02 httpd
1341 nobody 14 0 5104 5104 3368 S 4.3 0.9 0:00 httpd
1204 nobody 13 0 5260 5260 3316 S 4.1 1.0 0:01 httpd
30996 nobody 16 0 5760 5760 3404 S 3.5 1.1 0:10 httpd
544 nobody 16 0 5636 5636 3396 S 3.5 1.0 0:03 httpd
827 nobody 9 0 5484 5484 3392 S 3.3 1.0 0:03 httpd
32190 nobody 16 0 5796 5796 3400 S 3.1 1.1 0:07 httpd
1372 nobody 12 0 5080 5080 3304 S 3.1 0.9 0:00 httpd
32699 nobody 17 0 6780 6780 3404 S 2.9 1.3 0:05 httpd
1203 nobody 13 0 5512 5512 3316 S 2.9 1.0 0:01 httpd
1355 nobody 17 0 5004 5004 3208 S 2.9 0.9 0:00 httpd
1473 nobody 10 0 4932 4932 3208 S 2.7 0.9 0:00 httpd
32012 nobody 10 0 7784 7784 3400 R 2.5 1.5 0:08 httpd
1299 nobody 9 0 5284 5284 3316 S 2.3 1.0 0:01 httpd
1169 nobody 12 0 5500 5500 3408 S 1.9 1.0 0:02 httpd
31035 nobody 9 0 7932 7932 3404 S 1.7 1.5 0:11 httpd
1170 nobody 11 0 5336 5336 3308 S 1.3 1.0 0:01 httpd
1397 nobody 12 0 4752 4752 3072 S 1.3 0.9 0:00 httpd
345 dnslog 9 0 368 368 300 S 0.9 0.0 0:46 multilog
1419 nobody 13 0 4936 4936 3304 S 0.9 0.9 0:00 httpd
337 dnscache 11 0 1628 1612 336 S 0.7 0.3 0:54 dnscache
552 nobody 9 0 5668 5668 3368 S 0.7 1.0 0:03 httpd
1499 nobody 18 0 3972 3972 2952 R 0.7 0.7 0:00 httpd
13100 named 9 0 13996 13M 1960 S 0.5 2.7 1:24 named
13102 named 10 0 13996 13M 1960 S 0.5 2.7 0:12 named
1387 nobody 9 0 4956 4956 3304 S 0.5 0.9 0:00 httpd
1438 root 12 0 1124 1124 828 R 0.5 0.2 0:00 top
1418 qmaild 9 0 316 316 260 S 0.1 0.0 0:00 fixcrio
1482 qmaild 9 0 332 332 276 S 0.1 0.0 0:00 qmail-smtpd
1492 qmaild 9 0 316 316 260 S 0.1 0.0 0:00 fixcrio
1 root 0 0 524 524 456 S 0.0 0.1 0:09 init
2 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 keventd
3 root 19 19 0 0 0 RWN 0.0 0.0 0:00 ksoftirqd_CPU0
4 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kswapd
5 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 bdflush
6 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:11 kupdated
-------------
top -c
1341 nobody 19 0 7504 7504 3396 R 5.5 1.4 0:02 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1508 nobody 16 0 5384 5384 3304 R 4.3 1.0 0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1499 nobody 17 0 4888 4888 3208 R 4.1 0.9 0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1387 nobody 15 0 5136 5136 3324 S 3.9 0.9 0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1584 nobody 13 0 4964 4964 3232 S 3.7 0.9 0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
32012 nobody 12 0 7720 7720 3400 S 2.9 1.4 0:09 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
32659 nobody 12 0 8460 8460 3404 S 2.9 1.6 0:07 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1583 nobody 11 0 4840 4840 3096 S 2.7 0.9 0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
827 nobody 12 0 5484 5484 3392 S 2.5 1.0 0:04 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1170 nobody 12 0 5336 5336 3300 S 2.3 1.0 0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
32190 nobody 18 0 5824 5824 3400 R 2.1 1.1 0:08 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1204 nobody 11 0 5212 5212 3328 R 2.1 1.0 0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1397 nobody 11 0 5060 5060 3208 S 2.1 0.9 0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
13100 named 12 0 13996 13M 1960 S 1.9 2.7 1:25 named -u named
1355 nobody 11 0 5452 5452 3256 S 1.9 1.0 0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
32699 nobody 11 0 6796 6796 3404 S 1.7 1.3 0:05 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1299 nobody 10 0 5332 5332 3380 S 1.7 1.0 0:02 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1573 nobody 10 0 4260 4260 2956 S 1.7 0.8 0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1372 nobody 9 0 5156 5156 3304 S 1.3 1.0 0:01 /usr/sbin/httpd -D HAVE_APR-0 -D HAVE_APRUTIL-0
1599 root 12 0 1128 1128 828 R 0.5 0.2 0:00 top -c
337 dnscache 9 0 1628 1612 336 S 0.3 0.3 0:54 /usr/local/bin/dnscache
13102 named 9 0 13996 13M 1960 S 0.3 2.7 0:13 named -u named
1656 qmaild 9 0 324 324 268 S 0.1 0.0 0:00 qmail-smtpd
1672 qmaild 10 0 324 324 268 S 0.1 0.0 0:00 qmail-smtpd
1674 qmaild 11 0 324 324 268 S 0.1 0.0 0:00 qmail-smtpd
1680 qmaild 13 0 324 324 268 S 0.1 0.0 0:00 qmail-smtpd
1681 qmaild 11 0 324 324 268 S 0.1 0.0 0:00 qmail-smtpd
1686 qmaild 16 0 324 324 268 S 0.1 0.0 0:00 qmail-smtpd
1 root 0 0 524 524 456 S 0.0 0.1 0:09 init [3]
2 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 keventd
3 root 19 19 0 0 0 SWN 0.0 0.0 0:00 ksoftirqd_CPU0
4 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 kswapd
5 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 bdflush
6 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:11 kupdated
10 root 9 0 0 0 0 SW 0.0 0.0 0:00 khubd
231 root 9 0 352 352 284 S 0.0 0.0 0:00 svscan /service
286 root 9 0 324 324 272 S 0.0 0.0 0:00 supervise qmail
hope you guys can help me.
thanks
i d
