Subject: Loose the ability to run ps after a while...?
From: Ed W <lists@wildgooses.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:18:08 +0000

Can anyone explain this one:

I startup my vserver (almost the most recent 2.6 + vs2.2 + grsec patch) 
and I can see the process list by calling ps.  Then wait a few hours and 
then I can no longer see the process list and there is a complaint that 
/proc is not mounted (it clearly is)

www1 / # ps axl
F   UID   PID  PPID PRI  NI    VSZ   RSS  WCHAN STAT TTY        TIME COMMAND
1     0 19959     1  25   0   1996   888      - Ss   ?          0:00 
/usr/sbin/syslog-ng
1     0 20014     1  15   0  32984 12700      - Ss   ?          0:00 
/usr/sbin/apache2 -D INFO -D LANGUAGE -D SSL -D SSL_DEFAULT_VHOST -D 
SUEXEC -D PHP5 -D PROXY -d /usr/lib/apache2 -f /etc/apache2/httpd.
0     0 20025 20014  18   0   3840  3676      - S    ?          0:00 
/usr/bin/perl /usr/sbin/apache2splitlogfile
5    81 20026 20014  20   0  20820  4024      - S    ?          0:00 
/usr/sbin/apache2 -D INFO -D LANGUAGE -D SSL -D SSL_DEFAULT_VHOST -D 
SUEXEC -D PHP5 -D PROXY -d /usr/lib/apache2 -f /etc/apache2/httpd.
5    81 20076 20014  15   0  40920 29076      - S    ?          0:00 
/usr/sbin/apache2 -D INFO -D LANGUAGE -D SSL -D SSL_DEFAULT_VHOST -D 
SUEXEC -D PHP5 -D PROXY -d /usr/lib/apache2 -f /etc/apache2/httpd.
5    81 20077 20014  18   0  33116  6848      - S    ?          0:00 
/usr/sbin/apache2 -D INFO -D LANGUAGE -D SSL -D SSL_DEFAULT_VHOST -D 
SUEXEC -D PHP5 -D PROXY -d /usr/lib/apache2 -f /etc/apache2/httpd.
5    81 20080 20014  15   0  37032 18004      - S    ?          0:00 
/usr/sbin/apache2 -D INFO -D LANGUAGE -D SSL -D SSL_DEFAULT_VHOST -D 
SUEXEC -D PHP5 -D PROXY -d /usr/lib/apache2 -f /etc/apache2/httpd.
5    81 20083 20014  18   0  37028 17212      - S    ?          0:00 
/usr/sbin/apache2 -D INFO -D LANGUAGE -D SSL -D SSL_DEFAULT_VHOST -D 
SUEXEC -D PHP5 -D PROXY -d /usr/lib/apache2 -f /etc/apache2/httpd.
4     0 20102  4120  15   0    172    76      - S+   pts/0      0:00 
login                                                                              
          

0     0 20128 20102  15   0   2732  2800      - Ss   pts/1      0:00 
/bin/bash -login
4     0 20140 20128  17   0   2048  1304      - R+   pts/1      0:00 ps axl

....
....time passes
....

www1 / # ps axl
Error, do this: mount -t proc proc /proc




Even more curious is if I fiddle around trying to mount it and 
repeatedly call ps/top etc then sometimes the ability to get to the 
process list returns...

Any explanation?  How to fix it?

Cheers

Ed W