kernel_task / httpd high cpu usage

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kernel_task / httpd high cpu usage

recently i've been noticing that kernel_task is taking up a lot of CPU and memory, as does httpd

i'm no expert but this appears to be due to a lot of web usage. we host about five websites, none of which have a lot of traffic

if i shut down web services, the kernal_task and httpd usages shrinks to nothing. once i re-enable web services, the usages sometimes comes back but not as high

being paranoid, i'm wondering if my web server is subject to some sort of attack, or if we're just getting a lot of visitors

i wish there was some sort of gui that lets you see whose visiting your websites at any one time . . .

any ideas what this could mean?

Message was edited by: Rob Reuland

Lost count, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Jun 10, 2010 1:17 PM

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Answer 1

CHENTING

Level 1

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Jun 28, 2010 11:11 AM in response to Rob Reuland

same here.

My server runs only email and one simple website.. yet, sometimes, I can see single httpd service (run by _www) can take up to 99% or 100% of one CPU core. If leave it as is, sometimes, it goes the second httpd takes up anther 100% of another core... etc. etc.

I run 16 Core Xserver, and in a couple of hours, the total CPU usage can goes as high as 80%. while normally the average CPU usage (for normal emails, web service, etc) is using less than 2% of total CPU power.

Is that something wrong with my installation or implementation of my web server? (since the trouble comes from httpd), I did very standard installation and implementation, mostly the web server configuration left unchanged. (other than I put websites files into the server).

Or it may caused by other services? (yes, I run squirrelmail webmail service for my email user as well)

I normally go into the system and kill those httpd services by its PID. But it comes back in a couple of days anyway....

Any hint?

Thanks,

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