Rails - Feb 2006 - FCGI hanging w/ lighttpd and RoR 1.0 (need to kill -9)

Hi, everyone,

I''m currently running a Rails 1.0 project using lighttpd-1.4.9 behind 
Apache 2 on RHEL 3. My fcgi process (I''m only using one right now) 
always hangs after some time, which is something I haven''t experienced 
before (e.g., I''ve run this same app. on a TextDrive account and it 
works fine there).

So ... any ideas on what could be causing this? Or, better yet, how to 
fix this problem?

I''ve done some searching, and saw that some people have some problems, 
but either their setups are different from what I''m using, or the info 
might be outdated (pre-RoR 1.0). I saw that some people are fixing this 
problem by having the processes killed regularly, but I''m not sure 
issuing kill -9 every few hours is a good idea.

Thanks!

Jen

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

On Feb 17, 2006, at 10:16 AM, jennyw jennyw wrote:
> I''m currently running a Rails 1.0 project using lighttpd-1.4.9
behind
> Apache 2 on RHEL 3. My fcgi process (I''m only using one right now)
> always hangs after some time, which is something I haven''t
experienced
> before (e.g., I''ve run this same app. on a TextDrive account and
it
> works fine there).
I''ve had problems with 1.4.9 that I haven''t had with 1.4.8 and
several people I know had rolled back to the prior version because of  
several problems.

Are you having lighttpd spawn the fcgi or are you using the spawner  
within rails?

http://poocs.net/articles/2006/02/14/killing-me-softly-keeping- 
dispatchers-alive
http://jamis.jamisbuck.org/articles/2006/02/11/tip-textdrive-and- 
lighttpd

-- 
_Deirdre                                             http://deirdre.net

Sorry to ask a question here.

I am pretty new to Linux web servers and am in the process of writing my
first Rails app.  I have seen mention of using Apache in front of lighttpd.
My question is why?  Can''t lighttpd just be used by itself?  Trying to
figure out the purpose/advantage of this configuration.

If someone has a website link that explains this configuration I would
appreciate it.

Thank you,
      Rob Bazinet



On 2/17/06, jennyw jennyw <jennyw@dangerousideas.com>
wrote:
>
> Hi, everyone,
>
> I''m currently running a Rails 1.0 project using lighttpd-1.4.9
behind
> Apache 2 on RHEL 3. My fcgi process (I''m only using one right now)
> always hangs after some time, which is something I haven''t
experienced
> before (e.g., I''ve run this same app. on a TextDrive account and
it
> works fine there).
>
> So ... any ideas on what could be causing this? Or, better yet, how to
> fix this problem?
>
> I''ve done some searching, and saw that some people have some
problems,
> but either their setups are different from what I''m using, or the
info
> might be outdated (pre-RoR 1.0). I saw that some people are fixing this
> problem by having the processes killed regularly, but I''m not sure
> issuing kill -9 every few hours is a good idea.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Jen
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>


--

Robert Bazinet
http://www.robertbazinet.com
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Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote:
> On Feb 17, 2006, at 10:16 AM, jennyw jennyw wrote:
> 
> I''ve had problems with 1.4.9 that I haven''t had with
1.4.8 and
> several people I know had rolled back to the prior version because of
> several problems.
Maybe I''ll try that.
> Are you having lighttpd spawn the fcgi or are you using the spawner
> within rails?
Using Lighttpd to spawn.  The weird thing is that restarting lighttpd 
doesn''t fix the problem ... you have to kill -9 the process (you can do
this without restarting lighttpd and it works, too).
> http://poocs.net/articles/2006/02/14/killing-me-softly-keeping-
> dispatchers-alive
Unfotunately, this is one of those articles that doesn''t seem to have a
definitive answer -- just a description of a similar problem.
> http://jamis.jamisbuck.org/articles/2006/02/11/tip-textdrive-and-
> lighttpd
I''ll try using this method and seeing what happens. Unfortunately, the 
hanging doesn''t usually happen until after a day has passed (and
I''m not
even sure it''s that consistent), so it''ll be a while before I
figure out
whether this makes a difference.

I''d be happy to hear any additional information or ideas!

Thanks!

Jen

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Robert Bazinet wrote:
> My question is why?  Can''t lighttpd just be used by itself? 
Trying to
> figure out the purpose/advantage of this configuration.
In this case, there are a bunch of Web sites running in Apache right. On 
one of the sites, we want to replace a certain path with a Rails 
application. The easiest thing is to setup lighttpd and use mod_rewrite 
so that when someone goes to http://example.com/rails-app/ Apache 
proxies the lighttpd application.  The alternative would be to convert 
everything over to lighttpd, which would be no small task.

If the only thing we were running were the RoR app., then we might just 
run lighttpd without Apache.

Jen

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

jennyw jennyw wrote:
> Hi, everyone,
> 
> I''m currently running a Rails 1.0 project using lighttpd-1.4.9
behind
> Apache 2 on RHEL 3. My fcgi process (I''m only using one right now)
> always hangs after some time, which is something I haven''t
experienced
> before (e.g., I''ve run this same app. on a TextDrive account and
it
> works fine there).
> 
> So ... any ideas on what could be causing this? Or, better yet, how to 
> fix this problem?
> 
> I''ve done some searching, and saw that some people have some
problems,
> but either their setups are different from what I''m using, or the
info
> might be outdated (pre-RoR 1.0). I saw that some people are fixing this 
> problem by having the processes killed regularly, but I''m not sure
> issuing kill -9 every few hours is a good idea.
>
Given that you didn''t see this before, I''d guess it is
something OS
specific. I would look a 1) automatic restarts of Apache and 2) 
automatic log rotation.

How much traffic do you get on this site? If it is a low traffic site, 
you might be able to narrow the time or frequency down by regularly 
pinging a dynamic page on your site at regular intervals.

Ray

Thank you for the reply.  I understand now.  I am a .NET (no rock throwing
please) and am used to IIS.  I am just getting into RoR and trying to pick
up all this new/old technology.

-Rob


On 2/17/06, jennyw jennyw <jennyw@dangerousideas.com>
wrote:
>
> Robert Bazinet wrote:
> > My question is why?  Can''t lighttpd just be used by itself? 
Trying to
> > figure out the purpose/advantage of this configuration.
>
> In this case, there are a bunch of Web sites running in Apache right. On
> one of the sites, we want to replace a certain path with a Rails
> application. The easiest thing is to setup lighttpd and use mod_rewrite
> so that when someone goes to http://example.com/rails-app/ Apache
> proxies the lighttpd application.  The alternative would be to convert
> everything over to lighttpd, which would be no small task.
>
> If the only thing we were running were the RoR app., then we might just
> run lighttpd without Apache.
>
> Jen
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>


--

Robert Bazinet
http://www.robertbazinet.com
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Ray Baxter wrote:
> jennyw jennyw wrote:
> 
> Given that you didn''t see this before, I''d guess it is
something OS
> specific. I would look a 1) automatic restarts of Apache and 2)
> automatic log rotation.
It''s something I haven''t seen before on other machines, but
it''s been
this way since the beginning (which was recent) on this machine. I
don''t
manage it, I''m just trying to install RoR on it.

Apache isn''t automatically being restarted, and since Apache is only 
proxying lighttpd, I don''t think anything that Apache does should
affect
things. Or is there some sort of indirect effect on the system that 
you''re thinking of?

Also, I''m not sure what you mean by log rotation. Actually, I know what
log rotation is, but I''m not sure how that would affect an fcgi
process.
> How much traffic do you get on this site? If it is a low traffic site,
> you might be able to narrow the time or frequency down by regularly
> pinging a dynamic page on your site at regular intervals.
The site is being staged -- no public access, so the volume is super 
low. And it still hangs.

Jen


-- 
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