VPS keeps going offline

[draggar]

Something odd has been happening with my VPS host - around the same time every day (14:40ish) a lot of incoming requests seems to come in and knock the server offline. This has been happening for a few days now.

The host tells me I'm just running out of memory and I should buy more - I don't think this is the issue since it's been running at 37%-40% consistently for several months. As far as I know there has been no significant increase in traffic.

Any thoughts?

When I check w/ Solus memory usage at this time is 99%+ and I reboot the VPS - it goes back to 37%-40%.

This is a screenshot of the server status:

http://s118.photobucket.com/user/draggardevir/media/Host/serverstats-apr10.jpg.html

Logs are useless, unless I am looking in the wrong place (usr/local/cpanel/access_log (or something like that). To check though AwStats or Webalizer I'd have to check each site separately.

 

[Theo]

Do you have stats logs running at that time via cron?

 

[draggar]

You're talking to a VPS newbie - I don't think I have anything running like that (unless it is a default)?

 

[Theo]

Well, since you're getting stats via CPanel, the cron is running. Try: crontab -l and see what it outputs.

 

[draggar]

Just went back up to 99% and crashed - again. Rebooting now.

Just noticed some old Joomla sites are pulling some serious bandwidth even though they don't work - I'm cleaning them out now but I don't think that's the issue.

Edit: I can't even get into the console.

Crashed again - seems like every few minutes now.

Edit: Almost done w/ removing the Joomla sites - putting a blank index.html file in the root of each site. I don't think this is it but might as well eliminate it.

I am looking at the memory usage history over the past year and it is a flat line near the bottom (very low) until the past week or so.

 

[draggar]

It's not the Joomla scripts - just got up and the server has been down for hours, tons of incoming requests.

I am also getting a lot of these (and the recovered version, too):

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Server:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"][/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Primary IP:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"][/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Service:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]nameserver[/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Notification Type:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]failed

[/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Notification:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]nameserver failed @ Wed Apr 10 14:09:31 2013. A restart was attempted automagically.[/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Service Check Method:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"][check command][/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Number of Restart Attempts:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]1[/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Service Check Raw Output:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]
named is not running[/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Startup Log:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]
Starting named: [ OK ][/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Memory Information:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]

• Used: 624MB
• Available: 911MB
• Installed: 1536MB

[/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Load Information:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]13.07 6.22 2.44[/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]Uptime:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]0 days, 0 hours, 3 seconds[/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]IOStat Information:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]
avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 59.59 0.08 7.89 2.08 0.00 30.36Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn[/TD]

[TH="bgcolor: #FCF7EC, align: left"]ChkServd Version:[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]15.1[/TD]

 

[JohnnJohnn is verified member.]

Who is your provider?

 

[draggar]

TMZVPS - and it's been running great until the past week.

I've only added one site recently, another WP site that has very little traffic. I'm wondering if someone is exploiting something (somewhere).

 

[JohnnJohnn is verified member.]

Not much you can do with VPS.
Ask Tech Support to tell you what is going on.

 

[draggar]

I've been trying to - I've been emailing with support for several days now. They say I keep running out of memory - while that is true the spikes are not normal and the spikes are what's causing me to run out of memory.

 

[JohnnJohnn is verified member.]

That's bs. They have root access and should be able to tell you which process/program caused the spike in memory usage.

 

[amplify]

Maybe time for a managed/dedicated solution if tech support won't help you with a VPS. You don't have much control with a VPS.

 

[south]

TMZVPS - and it's been running great until the past week.

I've only added one site recently, another WP site that has very little traffic. I'm wondering if someone is exploiting something (somewhere).

Sure sounds that way. What OS is on it? You have ssh access?

 

[draggar]

Maybe time for a managed/dedicated solution if tech support won't help you with a VPS. You don't have much control with a VPS.

It is a managed VPS and there is no way I would be able to afford a dedicated server at this time, the VPS is pushing it.

Sure sounds that way. What OS is on it? You have ssh access?

CentrOS5

SSH - it looks it but I've never played with it.

 

[south]

What mail server is it running?

What version of php?

 

[draggar]

Mailserver - I think Dovecot

I don't see the PHP version but I did upgrade it recently (which was a snafu in itself).

Odd how these problems always seem to happen with a host close to immediately after you renew your service for a year. It's happened with 4 hosts in a row now.

 

[south]

PM or email me the IP or primary domain, root/admin user & password if you like, and ssh port if non-standard. Got a few minutes to take a peek.

 

[draggar]

Sent & TY.

Maybe this is something I should start trying to learn - any suggestions on books / sites / what to do?

 

[south]

Hmmm. I usually just dive in.

Maybe first start out learning some of the basic commands:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1c..8.serp.2soqXJ8eekI

DOS vs Linux Commands:
http://www.centos.org/docs/2/rhl-gsg-en-7.2/ch-doslinux.html

Introduction to Linux: http://www.linux.org/article/view/introduction-to-linux

 

[draggar]

Maybe I should take one of my older PCs and set up a LAMP server (maybe run an in-home intranet to try it out?)