Question about defunct processes


 
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# 1  
Old 02-08-2008
Question about defunct processes

Hey guys/gals. I am new to the site and fairly new to Unix/Linux. I have a master netbackup server (solaris) that I get pinged on occasionally regarding defunct processes. (Usually over 50 or so of them.) I know what a defunct process is, but what is it a product of? Just plain sloppy code? (From Symantec, I would expect nothing less.) My question is, how do I keep this from happening and how many defunct processes are ok to have? The number also seems to fluctuate as well. Thoughts?
# 2  
Old 02-08-2008
Quote:
Originally Posted by EMCSANMAN
Hey guys/gals. I am new to the site and fairly new to Unix/Linux. I have a master netbackup server (solaris) that I get pinged on occasionally regarding defunct processes. (Usually over 50 or so of them.) I know what a defunct process is, but what is it a product of? Just plain sloppy code? (From Symantec, I would expect nothing less.) My question is, how do I keep this from happening and how many defunct processes are ok to have? The number also seems to fluctuate as well. Thoughts?
I don't know what the process is exactly as you stated you know what defunct processes are. A "ps -exaf" should give you a tree of what they coming from parent wise.

Or you can track down the process id if you dont have a modern ps command like the netbackup bugs convey.

Code:
# ./bpps -a
NB Processes
------------
root 15141     1  0  Jul 31  ?  0:38 /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bprd
root 15148     1  0  Jul 31  ?  0:23 /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bpcompatd
root 15115     1  0  Jul 31  ? 48:53 /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/nbemm
root 15163     1  0  Jul 31  ? 14:18 /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/nbpem
root 28163 15148  5 09:28:53 ?  0:00 <defunct>
root 28156 15148  3 09:28:53 ?  0:00 <defunct>
root 28164 15148  3 09:28:53 ?  0:00 <defunct>
<..snip..>

My guess would be a mounting issue, where a resource is not available and the process is just freaks out over some hardware banging event if its not related to the above style of error.
 
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