Apache many httpd process by my own server IP? eating all my Ram

Question

Well i just bought a new dedicated server, I have no Linux experience, but i'm trying to learn.

I have been testing the server for a few days. I improve the httpd.conf my.cnf for better performance, etc.

I notice that my server was reaching MaxClient value in a matter of seconds, and obviously my site start loading really slow.

So I checked the net to see how many httpd process were opened by the same ip:

netstat -ntu | grep :80 | awk '{print $5}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -n

http://i.stack.imgur.com/7FU93.jpg

I thought that my server might be under TCP SYN attack, but then I realize that the IP is my own server. So I really don't understand what is going on.

The server is fine, great response, 30% ram usage, 15% CPU usage, and suddenly my own server open many httpd process at the same time, also each process takes like 1.5% of my total ram. So it goes from 40 clients to 120+ clients in a matter of min-secs.

If you guys got any advice for me I will really appreciate it, I have been using linux just for the last three days, at this point im kinda lost.

Thanks.

Answer 1

It doesn't look like a Linux problem, it looks like an Apache problem.

What do your logs say?

Is it a site that used to work and now is being moved to another machine, or are you setting up a new one? If it is an old site, is connection from your own IP to your is normal?

netstat -ntu --program will tell you what program is connecting to port 80.

I guess your site is hosting something more than static pages. Try to find what's the minimum configuration (modules/virtual hosts/applications) needed to reproduce the problem. This will help you to narrow down the troubleshooting area.

Answer 2

Try disabling mod_status (in particular the ExtendedStatus directive) and see if the number of connection from your own server to himself drops, I think ExtendedStatus hits apache from localhost to determine some of its counters.