Topic: Apache 2.2.x (ASF) faulting module errors

[sonofwestwood]

I have four servers with Apache 2.2.6 (ASF) deployed on Windows Server 2003 SP2.

Three keep reporting faulting module errors for these modules: libhttpd.dll, ntdll.dll, libapr-1.dll. Apache recovers and keeps running.

Now, the fourth server (running identical web application to one of the three) has never had these problems. It was set-up by a different person on a different network, so I wonder if any of these might explain the difference in behavior?

> Problem servers are connected to a SAN, Good server is not.

> Problem servers running W2K3 Standard Edition, Good server running Enterprise Edition

> Problem servers do have some different software installed, anything known to be particularly problematic for Apache?

[James Blond]

I run successfully apache (from apache lounge) under Windows 2003 server standart edition SP 2.

Are you running different config's?
What is in your error log? Anything in Windows event log?

[sonofwestwood]

[James Blond]

Do you use Apache from Apachelounge or apache.org?

Are there all needed files on all systems? You can check that with the depence walker

Did you change anything from the default settings about threads or childs?

[tdonovan]

The "Error in my_thread_global_end()" message is from MySQL.

Possibly MySQL bug 31687.

-tom-

[sonofwestwood]

[Pulse77]

Hi There,

I had the same problem with "Error in my_thread_global_end()" and here is what I did to solve it.

Specs:
Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard SP2
4Gb RAM
SATA RAID 5
2 x Quad Core Xeon CPUs

Software:
Apache 2.2.6 (From apache lounge)
PHP 5.2.6-DEV (from snaps.php.net)
MySQL 5.0.45
libmysql.dll from PHP 5.2.1 (This fixed the Error in my_thread_global_end() that I was getting in my apache error log)

Custom Apache Config:

Changed: EnableMMAP Off
Changed: EnableSendfile Off
Added: Win32DisableAcceptEx

Changed: MaxKeepAliveRequests 75
Changed: ThreadsPerChild 250
Changed: MaxRequestsPerChild 1024



The server seems a lot better now, but now I am also getting the errors in the eventlog:

Faulting application httpd.exe, version 2.2.6.0, faulting module libapr-1.dll, version 1.2.11.0, fault address 0x000078b5.

Our server is very active and if you check the mysql query cache hits its easy to see when the server is up or down, and on random you can see that the server is getting NO requests for about 30 seconds and gets going again.

We have a lot of CLI based PHP applications that runs on set intervals.

I am out of options, and don't know what I should be doing next to get the server from running better.

Any suggestions?

[Pulse77]

Just had another crash on the server, this time the error in the event log was:

Faulting application httpd.exe, version 2.2.6.0, faulting module php5ts.dll, version 5.2.5.5, fault address 0x0000acb9.

And just after the message appeared this was in the apache error log:

[Mon Jan 07 20:59:10 2008] [notice] Parent: child process exited with status 3221225477 -- Restarting.
[Mon Jan 07 20:59:10 2008] [notice] Apache/2.2.6 (Win32) PHP/5.2.6-dev configured -- resuming normal operations
[Mon Jan 07 20:59:10 2008] [notice] Server built: Sep 25 2007 20:19:40
[Mon Jan 07 20:59:10 2008] [notice] Parent: Created child process 2936
[Mon Jan 07 20:59:10 2008] [notice] Disabled use of AcceptEx() WinSock2 API
[Mon Jan 07 20:59:10 2008] [notice] Child 2936: Child process is running
[Mon Jan 07 20:59:10 2008] [notice] Child 2936: Acquired the start mutex.
[Mon Jan 07 20:59:10 2008] [notice] Child 2936: Starting 250 worker threads.
[Mon Jan 07 20:59:10 2008] [notice] Child 2936: Listening on port 80.


Which looks like a normal apache startup, but what would cause it to fail

Could it be bad coding, could it be one of the CLI applications, where can I start

[admin]

It's a well known issue. PHP is mostly bloating the server when PHP runs as module.

It is advised to try to run php with mod_fcgid (Fastcgi)

Running as Fastcgi memory usage of Apache is far less en the Speed is on par when running as module. There are advantages to running PHP with FCGI. Separating the PHP code from the web server removes 'bloat' from the main server, and improves the performance of non-PHP requests. Secondly, having one permanent PHP process as opposed to one per apache process means that shared resources like persistent MySQL connections are used more efficiently. And maybe even more important is stability, php is not shutting down Apache anymore.

Steffen

[James Blond]

My two cents: Comment out all un needed PHP modules (extensions). IMHO they are crashing PHP and Apache, but not PHP itself. Maybe you give that a try.

[Pulse77]

I will be trying Fastcgi, will give some feedback soon.

[funkyspider]

sorry to resurrect an old post but has anything improved with fastcgi?

I posted about my server crashing a year ago and it still happens. All I've done is set up some software that reboots the server if it goes down. not ideal but all I could think of.

I could really do with getting this crashing problem sorted, but I really don't know what else to try.

[Steffen]

Mostly php (modules) is the cause.

Ever tried Fastcgi (mod_fcgid) ?

Steffen