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sporadic 'application failed to start properly' errors

I seem to be getting sporadic occurances of the above error when accessing my site (adastralsailing.org).  I try again with a browser reload and the page (usually) appears - although sometimes this problem persists a bit longer.  

I get the following in my error log when this happens:

[Sat Mar 10 04:16:20 2007] [warn] FastCGI: (dynamic) server "/home/my_folder/public_html/dispatch.fcgi" (pid 27474) terminated by calling exit with status '0'
[Sat Mar 10 04:16:20 2007] [error] [client 80.3.128.4] FastCGI: incomplete headers (0 bytes) received from server "/home/my_folder/public_html/dispatch.fcgi"

I had a look at the thread "FastCGI: incomplete headers (0 bytes) received from server" - and am not much the wiser.  Stuff that may be relevant from reading that thread.... I'm using mySQL as my session store, and I have commented out the AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi in my .htaccess file as asked for in the deployment with fast-cgi tutorial.

Also sometimes it takes longer than usual for a page to load, and the log file contains:

[Sat Mar 10 04:43:47 2007] [warn] FastCGI: (dynamic) server "/home/my_folder/public_html/dispatch.fcgi" (uid 32908, gid 1409) restarted (pid 581)
[Sat Mar 10 04:43:47 2007] [warn] FastCGI: scheduled the restart of the last (dynamic) server "/home/my_folder/public_html/dispatch.fcgi" process: reached dynamicMaxClassProcs (2)

when this happens.  Any help with these would be very much appreciated.

Thanks guys

Rupert

2007-03-10 05:54 AM

Rupert, unfortunately you've encountered here the common woes of Apache1.3 / mod_fastcgi / fastcgi

I would strongly suggest not using mySQL for your session store - using your app's temp/sessions filepath (the default) will be much faster

The periodic longer page loads are when your fastcgi process needs to respawn - again, the frequency of this something that is related to apache1/mod_fastcgi - as apache2/mod_fcgid cooperate much better at keeping things alive.  And you see now why having a static web/application server like Mongrel is advantageous.  

However, on the apache1 server you're on we do our best to keep it live and running quick.  As soon as cPanel comes out with a stable version for Apache2 we'll be upgrading it.  All of our newer servers are running an EDGE cPanel which allows us to pull off the apache2 stack.

Sorry for the trouble,
~William

2007-03-10 09:59 AM

Thanks William (again!)

I've reverted to the file based sessions and it might have made some difference - it's hard to tell, but I'm still getting the same sporadic problems :(

So this begs the question.... what would be involved in getting moved on to an Apache2 server and would this be likely to solve my problems?  I hardly use cPanel (only really use it to check the errors log file and to get at phpMyAdmin when I have to) so wouldn't be too bothered about being on an Edge cPannel

Or is the only real solution to move over to Mongrel?  (I presume I don't need a cluster - it's only a site for a local sailing club so is going to be fairly low bandwidth)

Cheers

Rupert

2007-03-11 03:37 PM

Hi Rupert, yes all upgrades from your server are being migrated to one of our apache2 servers - so if you grab a beginner plan or something we'll get your account migrated.  Also - you can complain to cPanel to get a stable apache2 version - that will solve many problems, too :)    

Cheers,  

~William

2007-03-11 04:09 PM

Just a note to say thanks guys, the move to apache2 did the trick beautifully.  Very impressed!!!

2007-03-18 10:01 AM

Very glad to hear it - let us know if you need anything else.  

~William

2007-03-18 02:17 PM


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