fastcgi death spiral / apache cpu spikes

Hello friends -

I've got a open source app server (MapGuilde Server) running on Apache 2, fastcgi, on a windows environment.  Every now and again, running some reports through the application causes fastcgi / apache to spiral out of control and start logging error messages at an alarming rate (approx 12M / minute).  Log files repeat the following:

"[Tue Nov 27 14:45:43 2007] [warn] FastCGI: (dynamic) server "C:/Program Files/MapGuideOpenSource/WebServerExtensions/www/mapagent/MapAgent.exe" has failed to remain running for 30 seconds given 3 attempts, its restart interval has been backed off to 600 seconds"

CPU goes to close to 100% utilization and the application won't respond unless we restart apache, and nuke any phpcgi.exe processes hanging around.  I've been unable to determine a particular set of clicks / reports to run to generate this error and I have the feeling it isn't a specific set of actions so much as simply a misconfiguration. (?)

This is a big problem for us; we've got people very interested in running the report, but they've got the ability to fill the server up with nonesense log entries if someone isn't available to toggle apache, not to mention we shouldn't have to bounce the app server every now and again to get some processes to stop running crazy.

Here is the configuration section from httpd.conf in regards to fastcgi:

***************************************************************************************
FastCgiConfig -idle-timeout 120 -startDelay 180 -minProcesses 4 -maxClassProcesses 40 -multiThreshold 100 -singleThreshold 100 -killInterval 30 -processSlack 20

FastCgiServer "C:/Program Files/MapGuideOpenSource/WebServerExtensions/php/php-cgi.exe" -processes 4 -idle-timeout 120 -initial-env PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=500 -initial-env PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=1

**************************************************************************************

As is likely apparent, I don't know much about fastcgi (or cgi), but none the less I am in the position of having to maintain this component. 

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

brian

___________________________________
fastcgi-developers mailing list
http://fastcgi.com/fastcgi-developers/