Apace2 stops serving pages.

[Middle Fork GIS <middleforkgis@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, I am a brand new user to this forum though I've been successfully managing (low volume) Apache Servers for a number of years now.  The reason I'm here today is that periodically, though apparently (?) at random intervals, Apache stops serving pages.

Using wget from the server host:

# wget hipcodes.com
--2009-09-23 14:32:15-- http://hipcodes.com/
Resolving hipcodes.com... 72.249.77.11
Connecting to hipcodes.com|72.249.77.11|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response...

And there it sits until the server is started; likewise from a remote browser, the page is never delivered.   Nothing appears in Apache's log, even when set to the most verbose 'INFO' level.

Apache is NOT pegging the CPU:  CPU usage will show close to 0% and the load average will show close to zero as well.   Apache is not hogging the memory, very little memory usage is shown.  

Apache2.2.13-1

VPS running:  Debian:  2.6.18-028stab062.3 #1 SMP Thu Mar 26 14:46:38 MSK 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

Traffic is around 10,000 hits/day, a combination of static files, PHP, AJAX, from an interactive mapping program named Ka-Map! (similar to G**gle Maps, et al), with queries against a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database backend.

I  had the (I think) exact same configuration running on a similar VPS for over a year and this never happened, as far as I can tell.  

What I have done so far (all to no effect):

enable/disable mpm_prefork

increase/decrease MaxSpareServers as high as 250

enable/disable KeepAlive

disable as many additional modules as possible.

The apache2.conf currently looks like this:

ServerRoot "/etc/apache2"
LockFile /var/lock/apache2/accept.lock
PidFile ${APACHE_PID_FILE}
Timeout 300
KeepAlive Off
MaxKeepAliveRequests 50
KeepAliveTimeout 2

<IfModule mpm_prefork_module>
StartServers 5
MinSpareServers 5
MaxSpareServers 50
MaxClients 250
MaxRequestsPerChild 0
</IfModule>

<IfModule mpm_worker_module>
StartServers 10
MinSpareThreads 25
MaxSpareThreads 75
ThreadLimit 64
ThreadsPerChild 25
MaxClients 250
MaxRequestsPerChild 0
</IfModule>

<IfModule mpm_event_module>
StartServers 10
MaxClients 250
MinSpareThreads 25
MaxSpareThreads 75
ThreadLimit 64
ThreadsPerChild 25
MaxRequestsPerChild 0
</IfModule>

User ${APACHE_RUN_USER}
Group ${APACHE_RUN_GROUP}
AccessFileName .htaccess
<Files ~ "^\.ht">
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Files>

DefaultType text/plain
HostnameLookups Off
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
LogLevel debug
Include /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/*.load
Include /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/*.conf
Include /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
Include /etc/apache2/ports.conf
LogFormat "%v:%p %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" vhost_combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O" common
LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer
LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/other_vhosts_access.log vhost_combined
Include /etc/apache2/conf.d/
Include /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/

More information needed?

Any tips?

Tests I can perform?

Thanks in advance.

Steve Walker

middleforkgis aht gmail.com