Thread

Hello,

I am having an issue with an EE install that is eating up a lot of memory. The explanation for this is detailed in an email from the web host (below). Essentially, the host has determined that when using the EE control panel, there are instances where the same URL is requested several times within one second. Not sure why that would be happening, which is why I am writing here.

Can you please help me resolve the issue? The site is in it’s early stages of development, so we aren’t working with a ton of data or anything yet. It seems to be something specific to the CP…

Input from the host below:

cPanel requirements are 256MB memory (not counting Apache, MySQL, and other services). Correct, one PHP instance is limited to 32MB memory (as is set in php.ini). I reviewed the logs and I’m seeing that you’re browsing cmsadmin. Here’s a snapshot of memory usage and let me explain why your server is running out of memory:

# while [ true ]; do free -m; sleep 1; done
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 428 83 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 428 83
Swap: 0 0 0
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 363 148 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 363 148
Swap: 0 0 0
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 363 148 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 363 148
Swap: 0 0 0
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 363 148 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 363 148
Swap: 0 0 0
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 363 148 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 363 148
Swap: 0 0 0
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 424 87 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 424 87
Swap: 0 0 0
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 480 31 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 480 31
Swap: 0 0 0
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 364 147 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 364 147
Swap: 0 0 0
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 370 141 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 370 141
Swap: 0 0 0

Notice that memory drops to below 32M (necessary for PHP to complete). In this case the Out of memory condition kicks in. I checked the error logs to try to understand why you’d drop below 32M of memory. According to the logs, there are instances where you’re requesting the same URL several times within one second. What this means is that it’s not 32MB anymore it’s almost four times 32MB. That’s 128MB. With 147MB free you’d only have 19MB free, which is not enough to execute some tasks:

[Wed Apr 25 12:50:30 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] /usr/bin/php: error while loading shared libraries: libselinux.so.1: failed to map segment from shared object: Cannot allocate memory, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:30 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Out of memory, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:30 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:30 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:30 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Out of memory, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:30 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Out of memory, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:30 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:30 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:31 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Out of memory, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:31 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Out of memory, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:31 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:31 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:31 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Out of memory, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:31 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Out of memory, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6
[Wed Apr 25 12:50:31 2012] [error] [client ip.ad.dr.ess] Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://red.acted.dev/cmsadmin/index.php?S=e493c75ba049bd5380a2feadb353ab83bd0af8e2&D=cp&C=admin_content&M=field_edit&group_id=6

Mod Edit: removed domain and ip address for security.

Hi maodiddy,

I’m sorry you are having trouble with the Control Panel.

It looks like this is happening when you try to edit channel fields. What version of ExpressionEngine are you using?

What field group are you trying to edit when this is happening? What types of fields are in Group ID 6? Do you notice any kind of slowdown when accessing this in the Control Panel?

Cheers,

I think this is just one example of where it is happening. It seems to be happening throughout the control panel, not just when editing channel fields.

I am using EE 2.4.0. The control panel seems slower than on other hosts I have used. This is my first time using Unixy. Their support has been great and they are super responsive. Their assessment of the issue is that the server needs more memory. I upped the allocated memory for PHP to 96M, however the total memory for our VPS is currently only 512MB. I am wondering if that is typically enough for a robust EE install, or if we should just upgrade to a 1GB package. What I would like to rule out first is that there isn’t anything awry with the EE install or software.

Can I PM you with a login and you can take a look for yourself?

Hi maodiddy,

Can I PM you with a login and you can take a look for yourself?

We generally keep our PMs disabled because they don’t integrate with our overall support system and they are totally insecure.

If you didn’t encounter any errors during the install/update process, then there isn’t likely anything amiss with your install.

Performance can be affected by the overall number of entries, members, member groups, related entries, and number of sites if you are running MSM. So, before we get in for a look (which we totally do for real boogers), can you get me some metrics on those factors I mentioned?

Cheers,