Hi everyone. I must admit up front that I am not very strong when it comes to Linux. I am actually a Windows guy, but don't let that count against me. I work for a very small company so we do not have a Server/Linux Admin on staff. Most of our needs have been handled by our WebHost. We have started running into a problem and I can't seem to figure out what it is and I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

My company is webbased. We have one server that runs Apache and PHP. We have a secondary server that is used strictly for MySQL. We know that our PHP code is not as fine tuned as we would like it to be, but overall it is pretty solid. To ensure that it is we are in the process of installing Zend Platform to help catch some bottlenecks and such. The webserver is running RedHat, not exactly sure of which version but I know it is pretty current. I could get the exact info if it is needed. It is a Dell PowerEdge 1425 with 2 Xeon 3.2Ghz Processors, 2GB RAM and 2 80GB mirrored Hard Drives. Our server load has been skyrocketing lately. We have had an increased traffic level so it is understandable to a point. When I view top it seems to run on average from a .2 to around a 1.8. But it does get up around a 4 to an 8 quote a bit. So far today it is has skyrocketed to about 210 before Apache crashes and restarts. It has done this 4 times today. On average over the past 2 weeks it does this about 4 to 5 times a day. I know the code isn't perfect, but this seems pretty crazy to me. Zend Platform will be installed within the next few days so that will shed some light on the coding issues, but I guess I'm worried that something else might be going on as well.

If anyone could point me in the right direction to find out what is going on I would appreciate it. Again, I'm not a Linux Admin so my knowledge is pretty sparse as to how to go about locating the problem. Thanks in advance.

As far as I understood, apache is blowing away, due to some un-optimized php code. In order to ensure at least apache's fine work, you can try to tune it up a little bit. See those two articles - tune apache and Tune apache + php, while waiting for Zend.

You are exactly right. We were able to get Zend Platform installed overnight and the difference just with the caching and optimization is night and day. No apache crashes in the last 24 hours so that is a blessing. Now it is on to optimizing the code and fixing all of the bottlenecks thanks to all of the Event logging. I will definitely be checking out those articles you referenced as well. It always helps to know the entire picture. Thank you so much for your response.