From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Feb 20 14:30:06 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D6109106566C for ; Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:30:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ndhertbsd@gmail.com) Received: from mail-iy0-f182.google.com (mail-iy0-f182.google.com [209.85.210.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 940B58FC15 for ; Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:30:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: by iaeo4 with SMTP id o4so10172896iae.13 for ; Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:30:03 -0800 (PST) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of ndhertbsd@gmail.com designates 10.43.44.202 as permitted sender) client-ip=10.43.44.202; Authentication-Results: mr.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of ndhertbsd@gmail.com designates 10.43.44.202 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=ndhertbsd@gmail.com; dkim=pass header.i=ndhertbsd@gmail.com Received: from mr.google.com ([10.43.44.202]) by 10.43.44.202 with SMTP id uh10mr6661985icb.3.1329748203274 (num_hops = 1); Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:30:03 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=or6j4xEldt06VyGtKNWNjRKlfgyPgp3xW/7w9d3ObzE=; b=CyGNbBxHS7ph5EKIdLH3yMU8zbOnzfdJtg8LkhKl2iFaom3312fJxddUiz8Drwd8+B JKyOBG8qyLijDlPTBSfxinC7x3zYmPi4nRBrZS4mIO+J3PJm9/1yyqsku9oHRsuzfSs/ Ke/qmWrwL1qnKwkX/Og4wVePZEjfdDJ5X6ijY= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.43.44.202 with SMTP id uh10mr5388685icb.3.1329748203223; Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:30:03 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.42.158.65 with HTTP; Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:30:03 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:30:03 +0100 Message-ID: From: n dhert To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Subject: htpd going wild X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:30:06 -0000 FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE, all sucerity patches applied, all ports updated to the latest version (every week) In the last 6 months I have experienced 3 or 4 times the httpd deamon (apache-2 latest version) going 'wild', that is: an ever increasing number of httpd processes is being launched. In a top (shows default the 18 most consuming processes), after a short time all the 18 top processes are httpd It shows a load of 30, 40, and ever increasing interactive response, loggin-in, etc... gets very slow... I can only try to do # apachectl stop (which takes long to type, and get processed also :-( ) I already installed the FreeBSD port mod_limitipconn and specify in my Virtual hosts: Servername mysubdom.subdom.topdom DocumentRoot "my__document__root" MaxConnPerIP 3 # exempting images from the connection limit is often a good # idea if your web page has lots of inline images, since these # pages often generate a flurry of concurrent image requests NoIPLimit image/* But seems no help ... I can't figure out what can be the cause... My apache is the latest for FreeSBD, I don't think it's a bug in Apache, Is it some external websurfer/crawler that causes this huge load ?? I looked in the log files but can't find a 'smoking gun' Any one ideas how to find the cause and how to deal with it ??