We have several Joomla 2.5 based sites hosted on ISPConfig all experiencing similiar difficulties. Pingdom (www.pingdom.com) is used for monitoring our sites at 5 minutes interval so we can keep track on when site is online/offline. When the problems start all sites don't answer at all and Pingdom shows timeout (<30 seconds for response). We suspect the problem might be in global Apache or PHP configuration, but we can not confirm this. The problem is similiar to this: http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-59262.html Please help us troubleshoot this problem. This is how "top" looks when problems are happening: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s4oa6a98ti064m3/Screenshot 2013-11-14 14.03.05.png Restarting Apache helps.
Please check the error.log files of the websites for errors. Then check under System > server config > web if the apache version shown there matches with the apache version that is installed on your server. If it does not match, change the version in ispconfig. To apply the changes, use the resync tool in the tools menu to let ispconfig rewrite the website configuration for all sites.
The problem started today at 13:42 (UTC+1) and lasted for 25 minutes. This is error log excerpt from two sites: --- [Thu Nov 14 11:56:10 2013] [warn] [client 66.249.73.236] mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/clients/client14/web15/web/libraries/joomla/document/html/renderer/head.php on line 105 [Thu Nov 14 11:56:10 2013] [warn] [client 66.249.73.236] mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Notice: Undefined property: JDocumentFeed::$_custom in /var/www/clients/client14/web15/web/libraries/joomla/document/html/renderer/head.php on line 208 [Thu Nov 14 11:56:10 2013] [warn] [client 66.249.73.236] mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/clients/client14/web15/web/libraries/joomla/document/html/renderer/head.php on line 208 [Thu Nov 14 13:48:32 2013] [warn] [client 93.142.203.178] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 360 seconds, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/ [Thu Nov 14 13:48:32 2013] [error] [client 93.142.203.178] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/ [Thu Nov 14 13:48:56 2013] [warn] [client 93.142.203.178] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 360 seconds, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/ [Thu Nov 14 13:49:05 2013] [error] [client 93.142.203.178] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/ [Thu Nov 14 13:48:59 2013] [warn] [client 94.46.240.121] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 360 seconds [Thu Nov 14 13:49:01 2013] [warn] [client 93.142.203.178] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 360 seconds, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/ [Thu Nov 14 13:49:06 2013] [error] [client 93.142.203.178] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/ [Thu Nov 14 13:49:11 2013] [error] [client 94.46.240.121] Premature end of script headers: index.php [Thu Nov 14 13:49:16 2013] [warn] [client 93.142.203.178] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 360 seconds, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/ [Thu Nov 14 13:49:16 2013] [error] [client 93.142.203.178] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/ [Thu Nov 14 13:49:16 2013] [warn] [client 93.142.203.178] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 360 seconds, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/ --- the other site, similiar entries: --- Thu Nov 14 09:23:28 2013] [error] [client 10.10.2.58] File does not exist: /var/www/svmartin-medjimurje.hr/web/novisajt/blank.gif, referer: http://www.svmartin-medjimurje.hr/novisajt/administracija [Thu Nov 14 09:23:41 2013] [error] [client 10.10.2.58] File does not exist: /var/www/svmartin-medjimurje.hr/web/novisajt/blank.gif, referer: http://www.svmartin-medjimurje.hr/novisajt/administracija [Thu Nov 14 13:42:17 2013] [error] [client 83.131.209.31] File does not exist: /var/www/svmartin-medjimurje.hr/web/blank.gif, referer: http://www.svmartin-medjimurje.hr/ [Thu Nov 14 13:54:00 2013] [warn] [client 67.228.213.178] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 360 seconds [Thu Nov 14 13:54:03 2013] [error] [client 67.228.213.178] Premature end of script headers: index.php [Thu Nov 14 13:55:00 2013] [warn] [client 85.17.156.76] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 360 seconds [Thu Nov 14 13:55:08 2013] [error] [client 85.17.156.76] Premature end of script headers: index.php [Thu Nov 14 13:55:27 2013] [warn] [client 85.17.156.76] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 360 seconds [Thu Nov 14 13:55:27 2013] [error] [client 85.17.156.76] Premature end of script headers: index.php --- Apache version installed: Server version: Apache/2.2.16 (Debian) Server built: Mar 3 2013 12:09:44 Server's Module Magic Number: 20051115:24 Server loaded: APR 1.4.2, APR-Util 1.3.9 Compiled using: APR 1.4.2, APR-Util 1.3.9 Architecture: 64-bit Not sure where I can see apache vresion in ISPConfig under System > serevr config > web, take a look: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jeltjsznw2xkwf6/Screenshot 2013-11-14 14.26.13.png
Again we had sites down for around 15 minutes. Without restarting Apache, the sites started working. Excerpt from the log, same as before: --- [Fri Nov 15 10:01:56 2013] [warn] [client 93.142.246.2] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 360 seconds, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/site-map/weblinks/contacts [Fri Nov 15 10:01:57 2013] [error] [client 93.142.246.2] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/site-map/weblinks/contacts [Fri Nov 15 10:02:11 2013] [warn] [client 2.205.157.195] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 360 seconds, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/no/itemlist/category/8-novosti [Fri Nov 15 10:02:11 2013] [error] [client 2.205.157.195] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://domnovinscak.hr/hr/no/itemlist/category/8-novosti --- Please advise.
Sorry, it is on the fastcgi tab, not the web tab. Itmight be that your server is temporarily overloaded. try to install munin and monit on your server, we have instalation tutorials for various distributions here at howtoforge. This Software allows you to monitor various system parametrs and shows the as graph, so you will be able to see if there are any load spikes and it can monitor apache nad restart it automatically when it does not respond to a request.
Yes, ISPConfig had FastCGI config syntax set to "Old - Apache 2.0". Now I set it up to New (Apache 2.2) and did a resync on web sites, restarted Apache. Lets see if this helps. The server is very lightly loaded. If it doesnt I'll set up munin and monit as you suggest. Thank you!
