[Mono-list] Apache restarts required to avoid whitescreens

[Joshua Tauberer]

dugaldcurtis wrote:
> Hi All,
>  
> I have set up a dedicated web server which runs a website used in schools. 
> It currently serves at most 10 concurrent users.  Usage is light (low
> bandwidth) - and involves around 400 calls to MySql in the morning over a
> half hour period and the same at lunchtime.  Server load is very low and
> bandwidth is tiny.  At lunchtime users access the wepage one at a time (no
> concurrent access).
>  
> However, I have to gracefully restart Apache between morning and lunch or
> else (on busier days) lunchtime web pages start to just whitescreen (and
> load after a minute or so).  Button presses which are supposed to action
> database inserts appear to work but the inserts don't happen. With the
> restart at 11.30 this never happens.  However, users get logged out and the
> root of the problem isn't getting sorted.
>  
> Any ideas what the problem could be?  Is it mono or Apache?  When I restart
> apache, mod_mono restarts as well?  Is there a way to restart mod_mono but
> not Apache?  Testing possible solutions isn't easy - it is critical that we
> capture the lunchtime info as it relates to billing.  I have been unable to
> recreate the conditions myself.
>  
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated as soon more schools are to be added
> to the system and I am very concerned.  Undecided

It is possible to restart the mod-mono-server backend without restarting 
Apache, although I am not sure this is going to be of any help for you 
since users will still get logged out all the same.

It's explained at mono-project.com/Mod_mono (off the top of my head).

I would check the memory consumption of mod-mono-server (e.g. with top) 
and whether the database connections are being closed properly (e.g. for 
MySQL, "show processlist;").

HTH

Josh