Apache memory/cpu usage Plesk/Magento

[JonathanJ11]

Hi All,

I'm running a single Magento website with only around 150 products, and very low traffic, on a VPS with 2 Cores and 4GB of ram. However I am getting constant warning emails about high Apache Memory usage and High CPU usage.

The server and site were working fine, however since the server failed (Power cut on upgrade at the hosts end) and we rebuilt the website I'm getting these warnings, my host said it is just the website and the server needed upgrading... to which I did (server was a 1 core 2GB ram server). However since I've upgraded I'm still getting these warning emails.

Here is the latest one:

http://pastebin.com/U7s7TNZ4 (to many characters to post here)

The main part I think is:

4951 apache    20   0  441m 137m 6556 S  0.0  3.6   2:28.77 httpd
 4952 apache    20   0  443m 139m 7168 S  0.0  3.6   2:43.72 httpd
 7377 apache    20   0  358m  54m 6576 S  0.0  1.4   1:25.76 httpd
 7692 apache    20   0  433m 129m 6588 S  0.0  3.4   1:20.64 httpd
 7838 postfix   20   0 58340 2744 2016 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.03 pickup
 7917 apache    20   0  361m  56m 6444 S  0.0  1.5   0:47.37 httpd
 7920 apache    20   0  361m  57m 6756 S  0.0  1.5   0:48.65 httpd
 7924 apache    20   0  540m 141m 6616 S  0.0  3.7   1:09.22 httpd
10060 apache    20   0  441m 136m 6148 S  0.0  3.6   0:25.84 httpd
10061 apache    20   0  361m  57m 5280 S  0.0  1.5   0:12.17 httpd
10062 apache    20   0  442m 136m 6156 S  0.0  3.6   0:13.75 httpd
10384 root      20   0 15032 1072  796 R  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 top
14678 apache    20   0  431m 127m 6540 S  0.0  3.3   5:48.73 httpd
14839 apache    20   0  536m 138m 6868 S  0.0  3.6   5:28.64 httpd
14867 apache    20   0  542m 137m 8872 S  0.0  3.6   5:45.18 httpd
16843 apache    20   0  367m  59m 8540 S  0.0  1.5   4:14.54 httpd
17689 apache    20   0  443m 139m 6536 S  0.0  3.6   4:29.49 httpd
30291 apache    20   0  459m  61m 7188 S  0.0  1.6   4:07.26 httpd
31157 apache    20   0  475m  72m 8656 S  0.0  1.9   3:59.52 httpd
32485 apache    20   0  545m 147m 6968 S  0.0  3.8   3:23.32 httpd

I'm really new to VPS's and plesk so I'm wondering what I can do to try and track down what is causing these high usage as I'm 100% certain the site was fine before. The server has default build both before and after the fail.

Server Information:
OS CentOS 6.5 (Final)
Panel version 11.5.30 Update #47
2 Cores
4GB Ram


Are there any tools within plesk that I can use to see what is causing these issues? It's making the website load extremely slow.

Thanks

 

[JonathanJ11]

Just an update to this, I've upgraded the server to 6GB ram and 3 cores..... Still getting issues!

2477 apache 20 0 363m 58m 6540 S 0.0 1.0 0:40.74 httpd
2490 apache 20 0 542m 143m 6536 S 0.0 2.5 0:39.77 httpd
3819 apache 20 0 433m 128m 6328 S 0.0 2.2 0:15.38 httpd
3820 apache 20 0 434m 129m 6464 S 0.0 2.2 0:36.01 httpd
3833 apache 20 0 431m 127m 6544 S 0.0 2.2 0:21.95 httpd
4414 apache 20 0 363m 58m 6040 S 0.0 1.0 0:10.29 httpd
4426 apache 20 0 432m 127m 6180 S 0.0 2.2 0:13.15 httpd
4427 apache 20 0 443m 138m 6444 S 0.0 2.4 0:13.15 httpd
4434 apache 20 0 441m 137m 6484 S 0.0 2.3 0:12.78 httpd
4435 apache 20 0 433m 129m 6340 S 0.0 2.2 0:18.94 httpd
4436 apache 20 0 443m 138m 6496 S 0.0 2.4 0:08.78 httpd
4440 apache 20 0 443m 138m 6172 S 0.0 2.4 0:11.13 httpd
4443 apache 20 0 363m 58m 6456 S 0.0 1.0 0:11.15 httpd
4444 apache 20 0 363m 58m 6436 S 0.0 1.0 0:10.69 httpd

 

[Jayb33]

Hey there. I am having a very similar issue myself. I have a Plesk install on an AWS EC2 instance, been running fine for over a year. Suddenly yesterday I started getting severe CPU spikes:

I also see lots of apache refs when monitoring top.

Plesk was updated on the 29th July 2014, I wonder if this has anything to do with it?

Great to finally find someone with a similar issue, I've been tearing my hair out with this - even considering moving to a new host. Since 24hrs ago, my sites are down most of the time (16% uptime) and I cannot even SSH when the CPU is being hammered.

Anyone have any suggestions?

CentOS 6.5
Parallells Plesk Panel v11.0.9 build110120608.16
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650 0 @ 2.00GHZ
4GB RAM

 

[JonathanJ11]

Hi Jay,

Good to know it's not just me, I turned my automatic updated off after my server failed/had power cut while upgrading. So I'm running and older update than the 29th of July:

Panel version 11.5.30 Update #47, last updated at July 3, 2014 03:32 PM

Are you running a Magento site also? Or something different? I've found the issues are less frequent now I've upgraded my server but the hosts are been no help what so ever and are saying it is not there issue even though this has happened since the server failed. Have you had any luck?

Thanks

 

[JonathanJ11]

Still got these issues.... does anyone have any advice or support or anything to give me? How can I track down the source.

 

[Jayb33]

My issue was to do with botnets throwing requests at a Wordpress install, essentially brute force attacking wp-login.php and xmlrpc.php. WP has provided a patch for xmlrpc issue in 3.9.2 and I use htaccess to 403 the login page.

I would suggest your issue may have a similar cause, i.e, you are getting lots of brute force requests which are choking apache. See if you can find the source of the traffic and lock down the files if possible. Check for Magento specific vulnerabilities.

 

[Kingsley]

anyone found a fix

 

[UFHH01]

Hi Kingsley,

there is no "fix" for such issues as described and it is not Magento or Wordpress, which causes a high apache usage. Try to investigate access- and error - logs for an investigation. Investigate your plugins and extensions if a CMS, board software or shop-software is used on a domain, to see, if this might be a cause.

 

[Kingsley]

Hi Kingsley,

there is no "fix" for such issues as described and it is not Magento or Wordpress, which causes a high apache usage. Try to investigate access- and error - logs for an investigation. Investigate your plugins and extensions if a CMS, board software or shop-software is used on a domain, to see, if this might be a cause.

Ohk thanks, am trying to get upload screenshots but i keep getting this error

The following error occurred:
The contents of the uploaded image do not match the file's extension.