Webmin stops every so often

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#1 Fri, 03/07/2014 - 04:16
amityweb

Webmin stops every so often

Every so often webmin stops on one of my servers. I have to ssh in and service webmin start it to get it backup up.

Here are the last few log lines, I started it at 07/Mar/2014:09:52:10.

Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/libexec/webmin/acl/acl-lib.pl line 47. Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/libexec/webmin/acl/acl-lib.pl line 47. Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/libexec/webmin/acl/acl-lib.pl line 47. Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/libexec/webmin/acl/acl-lib.pl line 47. [07/Mar/2014:09:52:10 +0000] miniserv.pl started [07/Mar/2014:09:52:10 +0000] Using MD5 module Digest::MD5 [07/Mar/2014:09:52:10 +0000] PAM authentication enabled Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/libexec/webmin/acl/acl-lib.pl line 47.

The error Use of uninitialized value in split appears often, could this be an issue?

I have many servers running webmin and none of the others have the issue.

This server is same setup as the others, except I only use it for email accounts.

Fri, 03/07/2014 - 05:14
Locutus

The error message is harmless, it's a warning that started appearing with the latest Webmin version.

Webmin randomly crashing is often caused by system resource limitations. Are you running on an OpenVZ based VPS? See if you have the file /proc/user_beancounters and post their contents in [code][/code] tags after you ran into issues. The "failcnt" column tells you when a limit was exceeded.

Also check the /var/log/syslog or comparable after an issue occurred, for "out of memory killer" messages or similar. Use free -m to see available memory.

Fri, 03/07/2014 - 06:46
amityweb

I cant imagine it to be this, I have a 1Gb Linode and only a few email accounts on it, but I have this server for lots of other servers with Webmin, never had the issue. But I will check. I do have a process on this server that pings lots of websites frequently, maybe thats consuming resources. but it was on another server previously (Digital Ocean, equivalent setup to Linode) and it never occurred on that.

The only difference for this server compared to all my others is this one is 64bit, the others are all 32bit. Saying that, I am sure the Digital Ocean one woudl have been 64bit too, and as stated didnt have the issue on that.

Will take a look at logs, thanks.

Fri, 03/07/2014 - 07:22
Locutus

64-bit systems do need considerable more memory for its processes than 32-bit ones, so that might be the reason. In addition to my previous suggestions, you can also use the tool atop to record historical resource usage data and find culprits after the fact.

Fri, 03/07/2014 - 09:05
amityweb

I forgot to mention I have a monitoring system on the server, I use CopperEgg. It hasn't warned me its out of memory. the graph shows memory is never higher than 90%.

But in the messages log I do see this: kernel: Out of memory: Kill process 31481 (clamscan) score 176 or sacrifice child

There is no Kill process for Webmin though, only this one.

The kill process for clamscan appears alot in the logs, and a couple of times clamd and spamassassin.

I got a new server just for email because clamscan and spamassassin were slowing web hosting servers down.

Fri, 03/07/2014 - 09:32
andreychek

Howdy,

Yeah it's very likely that the issues you are seeing with Webmin are resource related.

What's showing in your Webmin error log is just a warning message, and shouldn't cause a crash of any sort (actually, that warning I believe is corrected in the next Webmin version).

We recommend using a 32 bit distro on any server with less than 2-3GB of RAM. A 64 bit kernel doubles the amount of RAM used by the processes.

It would normally show up in the logs when being killed due to memory constraints, and I can't explain why you're not seeing it in there... but my suspicion is that your issue is somehow memory related :-)

-Eric

Fri, 03/07/2014 - 09:32
Locutus

Yes, ClamAV and SpamAssassin need a lot of memory, so they're likely candidates for OOM killing.

Your Webmin might have gotten killed/crashed due to other resource limitations (see the user_beancounters file) which don't record an OOM message in the syslog. It'd be rather odd that it crashes just like that for other reasons, Webmin is usually very stable. :)

Fri, 03/07/2014 - 10:06
amityweb

Think I'll try upgrading then. Actually, before I upgrade.. what do you think is best (take into account cost also), a 1Gb 32bit server at $20 per month, or a 2Gb 64bit server at $40pm? I went with a 64Gb because I thought thats the way its all going now, I have an app on a 32bit server that dates cant go higher than 2039 or something due to 32bit, so I thought if 64bit is the way its all going I dont really want to get 32bit servers anymore. But then seems I need a better server to run the 64bit which costs more.

I want this to be an Email server for customers, because email accounts on the web server were slowing websites down due to spam and virus scanning! Not happy with slow websites due to emails, so moving emails to its own dedicated server.

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