how to monitor system resources etc

[Michael C. Shultz]

On Saturday 29 January 2005 05:59 pm, Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC wrote:
> Hi
>
> I am having a problem with apache/php/mysql or something.   One
> customers stuff tends to blow the machine up. I would like to be able
> to monitor stuff and never remember the tools etc to monitor  things.
> Process slots,  memory, buffers, etc.  (I always remember how to look
> at mbufs buffers though) or whatever else I can look at and see if we
> are hitting a limit.  Any pointers to stuff that explains the best
> way to track things down would be great.
>
> This is on 4.9/10 for now.
>
> Sorry for being so vague.  I am not getting anything in
> /var/log/messages and the mysql and apache logs don't give a lot.
>
> Symptoms are lots of httpsd child processes in sbwait and a few in
> lockf state.  All of a sudden load goes up from <1 or 1-2 range to
> over 200 and the swap space starts to rapidly fill (I suspect load is
> caused by the excessive swapping).  The swapfile is getting up to
> about 55% full before it starts to fix itself).  (2GB RAM, 4GB swap
> --- 2 x 2gb -- dual AMD Athlon MP machine). It will fix itself after
> a while and the load will go down as will the swap usage, but mysql
> or the php stuff or one of them is still hung up and won't respond. 
> The apache only handles this site. Other customers have their own
> apache installations.
>
> Apache is 1.3.33+ssl (ben-ssl)
> Mysql is now 4.1.9
> php is 5.0.3
>
>
> Thanks
> Chad
>
I'd start with fstat and see if your customer is leaving too many open 
files. Here is a good link about fstat:

http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2002/09/26/Big_Scary_Daemons.html?page=1

-Mike