Whenever Apache kills child process to create new ones after the MaxRequestPerChild
is satisfied, I see Defunct Apache processes in the ps
output. There defunct processes clear by themselves in a short while. However, there is temporary sharp hike in Load Average of the server.
I am not able to understand, why do these processes go to defunct state when they are killed.
I am running a PHP application with mod_php module in Apache, Pre-fork module of Apache. I can't upgrade PHP on server due to application need.
Any Idea?