[plug] apache help

Wed Dec 21 13:45:16 WST 2005

Jon Miller wrote:

>I've noticed that a clients log has over 50 incidents of the following:
>  
>
>www-data 27940  0.0  0.3 62808 3012 ?        SN   Dec20   0:00  \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL.
>  
>
That just looks like a `ps aux' line showing a running Apache2 instance 
(sleeping, actually, but anyway...).

As Apache2 defaults to the prefork MPM as shipped by Debian, this will 
result in many apache2 processes running, especially if it's under some 
load. This explains why you have many of them. For example my core 
server here, which offers intranet web services, has nine apache2 
children running at the moment, each of which looks like this:

www-data 17941  0.0  1.3 21544 14036 ?       S    Dec19   0:01 
/usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL

>Issuing "apache2 -k stop" stops the program, but I need to find out where it starts from in the first place and what does -DSSL mean.
>  
>
See `man apache2':

       -D parameter
                   Sets  a  configuration  parameter  which  can  be 
used with
                   <IfDefine>...</IfDefine>  sections  in  the   
configuration
                   files to conditionally skip or process commands.

Thus, -DSSL is defining the "SSL" parameter, enabling sections of config 
wrapped in <IfDefine SSL></IfDefine> directives.

>They do not use (to my knowledge) apache.
>This is a Debian server
>  
>
Well, it's either Apache or something pretending to be apache. Is it 
listening on port 80 or 443 (use "netstat -ltnp") ? Which process(es)? 
Have you tried simply removing the apache2 package if it's installed and 
unused?

>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
><HTML><HEAD>
><META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
><META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2802" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
><BODY style="MARGIN-TOP: 2px; FONT: 10pt Arial; MARGIN-LEFT: 2px">
><DIV>I've noticed that a clients log has over 50 incidents of the 
>following:</DIV>
><DIV>www-data 27940  0.0  0.3 62808 3012 
>?        SN   Dec20   
>0:00  \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start -DSSL.</DIV>
><DIV>Issuing "apache2 -k stop" stops the program, but I need to find out where 
>it starts from in the first place and what does -DSSL mean.</DIV>
><DIV>They do not use (to my knowledge) apache.</DIV>
><DIV>This is a Debian server</DIV>
><DIV> </DIV>
><DIV>Thanks</DIV></BODY></HTML>
>
It'd be nice if you could turn this off.

--
Craig Ringer