severe load problems, too many connections

[Felix Natter]

hi,

on an apache 1.3.37/mysql 3.23.49 server we often experience a slowdown and
we get random "Too many connections" errors from the MySQL-server. The
problem goes away for a short time when I restart the apache (apparently not
when restarting mysql).

I tried to use mtop to find out what's causing this, but I see nothing
special. Is there something that often causes these "too many connections"
errors?

thanks,

--
Felix Natter

[Jerry Stuckle]

Felix Natter wrote:

> hi,
>
> on an apache 1.3.37/mysql 3.23.49 server we often experience a slowdown and
> we get random "Too many connections" errors from the MySQL-server. The
> problem goes away for a short time when I restart the apache (apparently not
> when restarting mysql).
>
> I tried to use mtop to find out what's causing this, but I see nothing
> special. Is there something that often causes these "too many connections"
> errors?
>
> thanks,
>

Not closing the connections when you're done with them? For instance,
if you're using PHP, its garbage collector will clean them up, but not
necessarily immediately. And if the server is loaded, it may be a while
before connections are closed.

Or maybe you're just getting a heavy load and you're working the poor
server too hard.

Sounds like you need to do some digging into what the server is doing.

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
[email]jstucklex@attglobal.net[/email]
==================

[Axel Schwenke]

Felix Natter <fnatter@gmx.net> wrote:

>
> on an apache 1.3.37/mysql 3.23.49 server we often experience a slowdown and
> we get random "Too many connections" errors from the MySQL-server. The
> problem goes away for a short time when I restart the apache (apparently not
> when restarting mysql).
>
> I tried to use mtop to find out what's causing this, but I see nothing
> special. Is there something that often causes these "too many connections"
> errors?

Not enough information. Running out of connections (default: 200) is in
most cases a symptom, not the problem itself. Probably an overloaded
machine, leading to a congestion situation. Of course you could raise
the connection limit, but very probably this would make things worse,
not better.

You need monitoring. The minimum would be to turn on the -> slow query
log to log SQL statements taking too long. Probably you want some kind
of performance monitoring (think: sar) for the whole server as well.


XL
--
Axel Schwenke, Senior Software Developer, MySQL AB

Online User Manual: [url]http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/[/url]
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