Linux Debian Webserver slows down to an unusable speed every couple days

[nichiai]

I have a problem that has been troubling me for about 2-3 months now and I havent been able to figure out what is going wrong. This is my first post so please be kind. Usually I'm able to find the solution to my problems myself, but with this one being so general, I don't know how to begin searching for the solution.

Basically, my debian server crashes every couple of days. It doesnt crash as in restart or shutdown completely, but just so slow that it cannot be used. Some examples,

I try to attempt to load a website on the server. The first page loads (most likely because its cached), but then once I try to click on a link or login it just sits attempting to login until a time out response is given.

If I attempt to login via SSH, sometimes I cant even log in, it just sits thinking forever and ever. Other times I am able to get in at least, and then when I attempt to check what is going on, for example I run: top, it clears the screen as it would before displaying the information, but just stays at a black screen and is unable to load the information.

If I am able to log in, then sometimes I attempt to reboot the server, and I can't even do that. It will start to reboot but then just hang completely at different things such as mysql, or apache, or whatever, and I will have to manually shutdown the PC, by holding down the power button.

Manually shutting down the PC seems to be the only way to restart the server, and once it reboots everything is top speed and in working order until the next day or so when it slows down to a halt and requires a reboot.

PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME, WHAT SHOULD I DO? If you need any log files or anything please let me know. The times in which the slowdown occurs seem a bit random, sometimes usually after the weekends on Monday morning, and on Tuesday morning. But its really random. And there is nothing happening in terms of cron jobs on that dates that its happening.

I hope someone can help me

[mrjohnson]

Well, be careful hard resetting a server. You may get away with it for a while but eventually the filesystem is going to get corrupted.

You need to monitor your system better. You should be trying to find out if something is using too much memory or cpu (I'm guessing the former). Run top while the server has been up for a half day and compare it to the morning's results.

In top use 'M' to sort by memory usage. Also try `ps -ef' and look for a large number of processes. Your apache might be forking out of control if you've hacked the conf file. Do you have a database behind the server? Check the same things. Use `free' and look at the free memory (minus buffers/cache).

I would also take it down and do a manual scan of the filesystem to make sure hard resets didn't foul it...