From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Aug 21 14:40:38 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D68B716A50D for ; Mon, 21 Aug 2006 14:40:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: from dan.emsphone.com (dan.emsphone.com [199.67.51.101]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 94FDA43DFD for ; Mon, 21 Aug 2006 14:39:20 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: (from dan@localhost) by dan.emsphone.com (8.13.6/8.13.6) id k7LEdBEM050175; Mon, 21 Aug 2006 09:39:11 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dan) Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 09:39:11 -0500 From: Dan Nelson To: Robert Fitzpatrick Message-ID: <20060821143910.GA45306@dan.emsphone.com> References: <1156168481.30474.10.camel@columbus.webtent.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1156168481.30474.10.camel@columbus.webtent.org> X-OS: FreeBSD 6.1-STABLE X-message-flag: Outlook Error User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.12-2006-07-14 Cc: FreeBSD Subject: Re: Periodic processes X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 14:40:38 -0000 In the last episode (Aug 21), Robert Fitzpatrick said: > I have a FreeBSD 6.0 server that the periodic processes don't seem to > complete and build up until our monitor complains about the number of > processes and I killall. How would I go about figuring out which process > is the problem or if there is a cron issue? Can't find any errors in the > messages or cron log. After a few days, this is what I see and have to > kill: > > 26347 ?? Is 0:00.01 /bin/sh -c periodic daily > 26349 ?? I 0:00.01 /bin/sh - /usr/sbin/periodic daily > 26355 ?? I 0:00.02 /bin/sh - /usr/sbin/periodic daily > 26356 ?? I 0:00.00 /bin/sh - /usr/sbin/periodic daily > 26401 ?? I 0:00.01 /bin/sh /etc/periodic/daily/400.status-disks > 28129 ?? I 0:00.01 /bin/sh - /etc/periodic/weekly/310.locate > 28136 ?? IN 0:00.01 /bin/sh /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb > 28140 ?? IN 0:00.01 /bin/sh /usr/libexec/locate.mklocatedb -presort Run "ps axl" and trace what processes are being launched by those periodic scripts (using the PID and PPID columns) until you find one not in an "I" or "S" state. You can also install pstree from ports to make the job a little easier. Judging by the hanging periodic script names, it looks like you may have a filesystem that's hung, possibly an NFS mount where the other system is down. -- Dan Nelson dnelson@allantgroup.com