"Apache (internal dummy connection)" or [error] could not make child process

bbrian017 · 05-03-2012, 07:37 AM

Hi guys, My server has been crashing almost on a daily basis. What happens is the server ram gets used up and it becomes unresponsive. When I'm in SSH I can't even do anything as the site has no ram what so ever and my machine is a really nice one 4 gigs i5 processor.

I have hundreds and hundreds of the following in my /var/log/httpd

Code:

::1 - - [03/May/2012:06:16:02 -0700] "OPTIONS * HTTP/1.0" 200 - "-" "Apache (internal dummy connection)"

I've also noticed in my error_log

Code:

[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15144 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15145 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15146 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15147 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15149 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15150 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15152 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15153 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15154 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15155 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15156 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15159 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15160 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15161 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15165 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15166 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15167 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15168 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15169 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15170 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15171 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15172 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15173 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15175 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15176 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15178 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15181 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15182 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15184 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15188 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15189 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15192 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15193 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15194 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15195 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15196 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15197 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15198 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15199 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15200 exit, attempting to continue anyway
[Wed May 02 12:02:40 2012] [error] could not make child process 15201 exit, attempting to continue anyway

I've seen several article on the connection dummy issue but I've patched and nothing is working. Godaddy is not providing any support and so far I cannot manage to keep my sever up and it's starting to become a huge pain for me and my websites.

http://vdachev.net/2007/02/01/apache...my-connection/
http://thelinuxguru.blogspot.ca/2008...onnection.html
http://notepad.patheticcockroach.com...my-connection/

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Kustom42 · 05-04-2012, 12:30 PM

This is 99.9% of the time a coding problem with one of the sites running on the server spawning the child processes by creating continous connections back to the server. First troubleshooting step is to turn off all virtual hosts and then turn one on, start apache and watch for the issue. Turn on one site at a time until the problem re-occurs then you will know which site you are running that is causing the problem. Then look for any PHP functions that use loops as that is usually the problem but beyond that you would just need to start some trial and error troubleshooting with your code.

Kustom42 · 05-04-2012, 12:34 PM

This can also in some cases be a denial of service attack so check netstat -anp | grep :80 and see if there are a bunch of connections from the same IP. If the IP is NOT of your server this may be a DOS attack and you should add that IP as a drop rule to your inbound IP tables chain.