Questions[mod-fcgid](server)

Hi I've installed suexec using on ubuntu 12.04:

apt-get install apache2 apache2-suexec libapache2-mod-fcgid php5-cgi

However when I run the following command:

sudo /usr/lib/apache2/suexec -V

I get the following info:

 -D AP_DOC_ROOT="/var/www"
 -D AP_GID_MIN=100
 -D AP_HTTPD_USER="www-data"
 -D AP_LOG_EXEC="/var/log/apache2/suexec.log"
 -D AP_SAFE_PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
 -D AP_UID_MIN=100
 -D AP_USERDIR_SUFFIX="public_html"

I'm utilizing "/home/user/public_html" to serve users content on the web not "/var/www" How can I change the root directory to "/home"?

So got the below earlier to day...

Around that time the logs show a ramp in processes(600) and associated memory (1.2g), cpu usage load average (80) untill the server gave out.

Server had to be hard reset by host as there was no ssh or plesk panel access.

Fast CGI is configured as below and is setup for one high use site. As I understand it FcgidMaxProcesses 20 should protect against what happen but has not.

I've read many forums with differing answers and references to many different fcgi directives, but have found nothing conclusive. Any one got some definitive answers on how to stop this sort of server process ramping and subsequent server failure?

If you need more info let me know.

Cheers Andy

 /var/log/apache2/error_log
[Thu May 17 07:40:47 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17651 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:47 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17650 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:47 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17649 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:47 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17644 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:47 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17643 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:47 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17638 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:47 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17633 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:47 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17627 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:47 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17622 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17674 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17673 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17672 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17667 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17666 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17665 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17664 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17659 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17658 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17657 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17656 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL
[Thu May 17 07:40:51 2012] [warn] mod_fcgid: process 17651 graceful kill fail, sending SIGKILL

https://docs.google.com/a/thesugarrefinery.com/open?id=0B_XbpWChge0VRmFLWEZfR2VBb2M https://docs.google.com/a/thesugarrefinery.com/open?id=0B_XbpWChge0VWTcwZEhoV2Fqejg https://docs.google.com/a/thesugarrefinery.com/open?id=0B_XbpWChge0VUUtVWWFINHZjZ0U https://docs.google.com/a/thesugarrefinery.com/open?id=0B_XbpWChge0VZEVMclh6ZUdaOUE

<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>

<IfModule !mod_fastcgi.c>
    AddHandler fcgid-script fcg fcgi fpl
</IfModule>
  FcgidIPCDir /var/lib/apache2/fcgid/sock
  FcgidProcessTableFile /var/lib/apache2/fcgid/shm

  FcgidIdleTimeout 40
  FcgidProcessLifeTime 30
  FcgidMaxProcesses 20
  FcgidMaxProcessesPerClass 20
  FcgidMinProcessesPerClass 0
  FcgidConnectTimeout 30
  FcgidIOTimeout 120
  FcgidInitialEnv RAILS_ENV production
  FcgidIdleScanInterval 10
  FcgidMaxRequestLen 1073741824
</IfModule>

I moved to an unmanaged server that uses fcgid (before I was using mod_php), and in the error logs I see tons of such errors:

[Mon Apr 23 21:17:12 2012] [warn] [client 66.249.68.233] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 31 seconds [Mon Apr 23 21:17:12 2012] [error] [client 66.249.68.233] Premature end of script headers: index.php

[Mon Apr 23 17:59:51 2012] [warn] [client 74.117.180.58] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 31 seconds [Mon Apr 23 17:59:51 2012] [warn] [client 74.117.180.58] (110)Connection timed out: mod_fcgid: ap_pass_brigade failed in handle_request_ipc function

There seem to be more of these when the load is higher (2-3) during backups, and I even managed to replicate this during a load of 3 when tar / mysqldump was running during a backup (the user sees a 500 error message after 30 seconds). Could the server be overloaded? This question seems to be related PHP + Fcgid hangs if download interrupted but not the same.

This is a top notch server, and I am surprised this would be too much. Here are some specs: 6-7 Drupal sites with Webmin

• Intel® Core™ i7-2600 Quadcore incl. Hyper-Threading Technology
• RAM 16 GB DDR3 RAM
• Hard disks2 x 3 TB SATA 6 Gb/s HDD 7200 rpm (Software-RAID 1)
• NIC1 Gbit OnBoard connected at 100 Mbit

I've recently switched to a FastCGI setup for PHP (Apache2-worker and mod_fcgid). However, when a single PHP script is very busy, it seems to block all other PHP requests. What would be wrong with my configuration?

My main reason for using mod_fcgid is to keep PHP memory usage under control. With mod_php, all individual Apache forks grow in memory after serving PHP.

I've also switched to the apache2-worker model, since there all thread-unsafe PHP code exists outside Apache.

My FastCGI script looks like:

#!/bin/sh
#export PHPRC=/etc/php/fastcgi/
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=5
export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=5000

global_root=/srv/www/vhosts.d/
exec /usr/bin/php-cgi5 \
-d open_basedir=$global_root:/tmp:/usr/share/php5:/var/lib/php5 \
-d disable_functions="exec,shell_exec,system"

My Apache config looks like this:

<IfModule fcgid_module>
  FcgidIPCDir /var/lib/apache2/fcgid/
  FcgidProcessTableFile /var/lib/apache2/fcgid/shm
  FcgidMaxProcessesPerClass 1
  FcgidInitialEnv RAILS_ENV production
  FcgidIOTimeout 600
  AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi

  FcgidConnectTimeout 20
  MaxRequestLen 16777216

  <FilesMatch "\.php$">
    AddHandler fcgid-script .php
    Options +ExecCGI
    FcgidWrapper /srv/www/cgi-bin/php5-wrapper.sh .php
  </FilesMatch>
  DirectoryIndex index.php
</IfModule>

I'm aware there are various different ways to do this but I'm not sure that the "best" way would be for my particular situation:

• Each site should have its own user account (site user)
• Virtual Hosts point to a directory within the site user's home dir
• Apache executes each site as the site user's user:group
• CLI commands can be executed on the site as the site user
• Various contractors are responsible for maintaining 1 or more sites, and each contractor should have his own account user account
• Contactors will also have the account information for each site account that they mainatian. They will login in as the site user in order to maintain each site - either with ssh directly to that site account, or by logging into their contractor account and then switching users.

My first thought was using mod_fcgi since i think this is how its typically done on some of the shared server environments Ive used. I googled this set up of course but most of the guides i found were random blog posts. What I would like is something with a little more credibility (like VPS company's howto KB or a distro wiki). This way I can point the admin to it as a general guide which im sure he will adapt to how he has this particular server set up.