Interpreting Error Log entries

[nunovo]

Something just overloaded my server for a minute, so I went looking for info about it, and could find only one thing, a short series of messages in the error log, like this:

Execute of /home/usr/public_html/index.php stopped because of load 31.27

I'm wondering what 'stopped because of load 31.27' means.

More generally, I'm wondering what overloaded the server, and what I should be looking for, either as a preventative or a cure!

:)

[Val]

The execution of your index.php file has been stopped at that time, because the server loadavg was way too high - 31.27. Our System Administrators are constantly monitoring all our servers and chances are they were already working on the issue when you have noticed the problem. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to reduce the server load immediately and that's why you have seen it in the first place.

Unless you have been contacted by one of our admins, there is nothing to worry about and it was another account hosted on the same server, which caused the server overload. Usually such issues are due to misconfigured script/application that either enters into an infinite loop or utilizes a huge part of the system resources (for example by indexing and searching the records of a very large database).

[nunovo]

Usually such issues are due to misconfigured script/application that either enters into an infinite loop or utilizes a huge part of the system resources (for example by indexing and searching the records of a very large database).

Thank you for the explanation. So long as it wasn't caused by me I am not worrying! :)

[nunovo]

Similar thing happening 18 months later.

Just want to set out the symptoms here for future reference.
Got a 500 error (Internal Server Error) with the following:
Common reasons for this error are:
* Incorrect file/directory permissions: Above 755.
* Incorrect Apache directives inside .htaccess file.

Checked the error log - it shows a load error:
"Execute of /home/... stopped because of load 31.93"
plus some "Premature end of script headers" errors that may or may not be related.

If this is related to CPU time, I seem to be within the limit (1626.35/10800).
But it does make me wonder what's typical for a given website, and whether I should be looking for other symptoms of trouble.

[Val]

As the message in the error logs suggests, the execution of the script has been stopped due to abnormal high load on the server (31.93 to be exact). In cases when the server load is too high, the php is configured to stop new executions temporary until our system administrators are fixing the problem, in order to prevent the server from crashing and being totally inaccessible.

This shouldn't however be happening on a regular interval, as it is a very rare 'event' :)

[nunovo]

Thanks Val,

I'm keeping an eye on the errors and the stats - and thought I'd seen several of the end of script errors yesterday. There've been none in the last day.

http://s3.tinypic.com/210elgh_th.jpg (http://i29.tinypic.com/210elgh.jpg)
I see that my Executions rate jumped yesterday morning.
It's now at 6449/12000.
While it looks like a one-off, I'm wondering if there are ways of probing the source more fully.

I'm also wondering what happens if it gets to 12000.

[Val]

Nothing really will happen immediately if you reach the limit. If however, your website is constantly reaching this limit for a long period of time, our support team will contact you and provide you with more information on what you can do to optimize the site cpu usage and/or executions.