Re: [cobalt-users] HTTPD dies and won't restart. semaphore problem.

[Larry Smith <lesmith@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday 04 August 2003 10:45, Mike Jeffers wrote:
> Hey everyone. I'm reposting this as I got no response before. I'm hoping
> someone has an idea of where I can go from here.
>
> Thanks!
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2003 08:47:22 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Mike Jeffers <mjeffers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: HTTPD dies and won't restart. semaphore problem.
>
>
> We have been plagued for several months now by a mysterious problem on our
> RAQ4r. Apache dies unexpectedly and won't restart with the same command
> line dictated by the rc.d/init.d service file.
>
> Whenever we try to restart apache the following error message appears in
> the error.log file:
>
> [Mon Jul 28 15:01:09 2003] [warn] pid file /var/run/httpd.pid overwritten
> -- Unclean shutdown of previous Apache run?
> semget: No space left on device
> semget: No space left on device
>
> After poking around a little more we found that there were an excessive
> amount of semaphores belonging to HTTPD hanging around. It wasn't until we
> used the ipcrm function to "kill the httpd semaphores" that we would see
> apache successfully restart.
>
> Only for a short time now have we been graphing via MRTG the httpd
> semaphore count which can be seen here:
>
> http://www.adaptivedataworks.com/mrtg/gerald/sem.html
>
> This graph shows that apache crashed around 128 semaphores and it was
> restarted almost immediately (with our manual intervention). The
> importance of this graph shows the slow growth rate to at least give us an
> idea of when it'll happen again.
>
> Can ANYONE please point us in the right direction as to how to figure out
> WHAT or WHY this is happening?
>
> Many many many thanks in advance,
>
> Mike Jeffers
> Adaptive Data Works, LLC
> http://www.adaptivedataworks.com
>

Mike,

  According to the Apache docs, this is apparently related to the mod_ssl and 
the SSLMutex parameter settings for your server.  Recommend you search 
www.apache.org  for semaphore and read some of the things stated there since 
there are several different "reasons" it can happen and what to do about it.

-- 
Larry Smith
SysAd ECSIS.NET
sysad@xxxxxxxxx