Apache server gives 403 forbidden error after a couple of request

Question

I have a really strange problem. I am using Apache2 and I have set up a VirtualHost. And it is working, but after a couple of request (4-5), I am getting 403 error. After I wait 10-20 seconds, the page starts to work again.

Here is my VirtualHost record.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin info@the-host.com
    ServerName subdomain.the-host.com

    DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/subdomain.the-host.com/current/web

    ErrorLog        /var/log/apache2/subdomain.the-host.com-error.log
    CustomLog       /var/log/apache2/subdomain.the-host.com-access.log combined

    <Directory /var/www/vhosts/subdomain.the-host.com/current/web>
        Options +ExecCGI

        AllowOverride All
        Allow from all
    </Directory>

    LogLevel warn
    ServerSignature On
</VirtualHost>

The directory has www-data:www-data owner ship

Here are the errors from the log

[Tue May 21 15:14:57 2013] [warn] [client 111.111.111.111] mod_fcgid: stderr: Empty module and/or action after parsing the URL "/favicon.ico" (/).
[Tue May 21 15:14:58 2013] [warn] [client 111.111.111.111] mod_fcgid: stderr: Empty module and/or action after parsing the URL "/favicon.ico" (/).
[Tue May 21 15:14:58 2013] [warn] [client 111.111.111.111] mod_fcgid: stderr: Empty module and/or action after parsing the URL "/favicon.ico" (/).
[Tue May 21 15:14:59 2013] [warn] [client 111.111.111.111] mod_fcgid: stderr: Empty module and/or action after parsing the URL "/favicon.ico" (/).
[Tue May 21 15:14:59 2013] [error] [client 111.111.111.111] client denied by server configuration: /var/www/vhosts/subdomain.the-host.com/current/web/favicon.ico
[Tue May 21 15:14:59 2013] [error] [client 111.111.111.111] client denied by server configuration: /var/www/vhosts/subdomain.the-host.com/current/web/favicon.ico
[Tue May 21 15:14:59 2013] [warn] [client 111.111.111.111] mod_fcgid: stderr: Empty module and/or action after parsing the URL "/favicon.ico" (/).
[Tue May 21 15:14:59 2013] [error] [client 111.111.111.111] client denied by server configuration: /var/www/vhosts/subdomain.the-host.com/current/web/favicon.ico
[Tue May 21 15:14:59 2013] [error] [client 111.111.111.111] client denied by server configuration: /var/www/vhosts/subdomain.the-host.com/current/web/es, referer: http://subdomain.the-host.com/es/leatid
[Tue May 21 15:15:00 2013] [error] [client 111.111.111.111] client denied by server configuration: /var/www/vhosts/subdomain.the-host.com/current/web/favicon.ico
[Tue May 21 15:15:00 2013] [warn] [client 111.111.111.111] mod_fcgid: stderr: Empty module and/or action after parsing the URL "/favicon.ico" (/).
[Tue May 21 15:15:00 2013] [warn] [client 111.111.111.111] mod_fcgid: stderr: Empty module and/or action after parsing the URL "/favicon.ico" (/).

Any ideas why apache fails after 4-5 requests?

Answer 1

Probably your mod_fcgid backend processes died immediately after request is finished. It's not a normal situation, so you need to find what is the root cause of dying fcgi, maybe some error in a script? I guess it's related to action with /favicon.ico, maybe your script can't handle 404 errors properly or sth like that.