FreeBSD upgrade from hotfix 6 to 8 - apache/mem/cpu problems!

[kevin@]

I'm running FreeBSD 5.3 and PSA 7.5.4.
I have been running very stable the past few months on hotfix 6, and a couple days ago decided to upgrade to the latest hotfix 8.

I actually have LESS load on my server now, about 60% less than i did a few weeks ago as one of my big clients moved hosts.

Since the upgrade, periodically the whole system will freeze and the load averages will skyrocket. (I hardly have any load on the server)

I've started seeing messages like:
collecting pv entries -- suggest increasing PMAP_SHPGPERPROC

and kern.maxfiles reached, etc.

My memory gets chewed up now, as does the CPU. The whole system becomes CPU bound and then anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes later it all comes back to normal.

I've noticed if I can log long enough to restart apache, that seems to help.

I can't figure out what about those hotfixes might have messed everything up? They didn't really do all that much, few bug fixes and new horde... I haven't made any other changes.

Any ideas? I'm at a loss here, I've been trying things and googling for a few days now.

 

[kevin@]

It's happening right now... check out the swap usage. 1GB of ram in this system and I haven't changed anything except the apply the hotfixes

last pid: 79756; load averages: 17.10, 7.81, 4.39 up 1+01:37:54 18:25:43
792 processes: 1 running, 781 sleeping, 10 zombie
CPU states: 0.5% user, 0.0% nice, 4.1% system, 0.9% interrupt, 94.6% idle
Mem: 665M Active, 49M Inact, 277M Wired, 3564K Cache, 111M Buf, 1660K Free
Swap: 4000M Total, 863M Used, 3137M Free, 21% Inuse, 1212K In, 752K Out

 

[kevin@]

This is still ongoing.... I can't seem to figure out what is happening. The server is behaving so differently now.

Is there anything else I can check to track down the source of the problem?

 

[ComTech]

I am currently running the same setup you were: FreeBSD 5.3 and PSA 7.5.4 Hotfix 6. The only issue we currently have is qmail randomly stopping from time to time. This issue is suppose to be corrected with hotfix 7, but I am uneasy installing this hotfix after you are reporting troubles.

Did you install hotfix 7 before installing 8 or did you go strait to hotfix 8?

 

[kevin@]

To be honest, I didn't even know there was a hotfix 8 when I upgraded. I used the updater, and at that time there was no hotfix 8 listed on the website. I assumed I was going to 7, but lo and behold I got up to 8 since it was released on april 13th, I guess they were slow updating the website.

I'm still stumped here, I'm considering a complete reinstall or a very risky upgrade to 8... but for now im babysitting the server and restarting apache every few hours which is driving me nuts