Too many processes

Apache holding too many processes

[techhie]

Dear All

I am having a big problem.

We have Apache 1.3 on redhat linux. I am new to administrating the server. When there are too many hits on the website, apache seems to hold the processes and does not kill them.
The output of a ps command.

apache 9787 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9788 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9789 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9790 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9791 5043 0 20:07 ?
<... 150+ more-or-less contiguous PIDs>
apache 9950 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9951 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9957 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9961 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9962 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9964 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9965 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9970 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 9997 5043 0 20:07 ?
apache 10219 5043 0 20:18 ?
apache 10220 5043 0 20:18 ?
apache 10221 5043 0 20:18 ?
apache 10222 5043 0 20:18 ?
<... more PIDs>
apache 10533 5043 0 20:24 ?
apache 10534 5043 0 20:24 ?

as you see, most of the processes were created at 20:07 and the ps was executed at 20:24. I am not sure why the processes are being held on. After a while, apache does not accept anymore connections.

the httpd.conf

MaxKeepAliveRequests 20
KeepAliveTimeout 15
MinSpareServers 20
MaxSpareServers 30
StartServers 50
MaxClients 250
MaxRequestsPerChild 1000

Apache rpm's installed

apache-1.3.27-12.ent
apacheconf-0.8.1-1
apache-devel-1.3.27-12.ent
apache-manual-1.3.27-12.ent

I am running the server on a HP DL380, with VMware ESX 4. The guest has 3 GB RAM and 2 CPU's.

This does not happen everyday, but whenever there is heavy traffic.

I would be grateful if anyone can help in this regard.

Thanks in Advance.

[edited by: jdMorgan at 2:15 pm (utc) on Nov. 30, 2009]
[edit reason] brevity [/edit]

[techhie]

Anybody. ? please help.

Thanks

[jdMorgan]

Look at all of the error logs -- Apache, apps such as mySQL, and PHP. Something somewhere is hanging or looping. You might also wish to inquire about command-line tools and debugging methods in our *nix forum, since basically the whole server is locking up.

Jim

[techhie]

Dear jdmorgan

I checked the apache error logs. basically, other than client errors file not found, there is nothing much i can see. The weird part is, this does not happen at times when there i no heavy traffic on the website. The site keeps working for many months without any issues.
I checked the php logs also. There are warnings, no errors.
We use pgsql.
I am totally lost here.