I managed to catch one of our little database-stuck spells (where a bunch of db threads get stuck in "statistics state") and got vmstat running on it. The notable things are that the number of processes in uninterruptible sleep (the 'b' column) is bigger than usual (0-1 with an occasional 2 is normal), a few processes are even swapped out ('w' column), and i/o has gone all wonky; some unusually low input ("bi") and very unusually high output ("bo"). There's nothing reported about SCSII oddities in the system logs, nor anything in the mysql log. It may be something as mundane as the flushing of journal buffers for the filesystem or the database, in which case some tweaking may be possible, or there may be darker forces at work (mwoo-ha-ha-haaaaa!) Apache seems to have died around this time as well, apparently a failed restart. Apache is set to restart on pliny every hour at 34 minutes to keep a memory leak from getting too bad. It's possible that the exiting Apache freed up a big hole in memory that other things suddenly tried to fill? I don't know. [brion@pliny brion]$ vmstat 5 procs memory swap io system cpu r b w swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id 0 5 3 799988 7380 39108 1227312 44 27 84 140 60 16 23 5 72 0 3 3 799988 10464 38600 1224112 6 1 84 8077 523 306 16 4 80 0 3 3 799988 10552 38400 1223784 2 4 1749 6151 751 524 13 5 82 0 3 3 799988 10556 37316 1224252 0 27 307 6257 672 363 23 5 72 0 2 4 799988 5588 36804 1229240 6 60 1127 7719 783 523 14 3 83 1 1 3 799988 8324 36196 1226936 6 5 402 19343 368 393 14 6 81 1 2 4 799976 6416 35664 1228536 0 91 277 15835 390 405 35 7 58 1 2 4 799976 8360 35340 1227040 0 105 344 10632 489 414 39 8 52 4 2 3 799976 8192 34656 1228296 0 14 288 12609 490 507 40 8 52 4 2 3 799984 10360 32700 1234596 0 2 1373 14228 586 743 41 9 50 1 3 4 799984 8204 30808 1246252 0 57 566 16876 357 546 41 9 50 1 3 4 799980 8484 29568 1244496 0 1 40 16054 241 399 39 7 54 2 9 4 799980 8360 28312 1244432 0 1 75 18043 262 422 41 8 50 0 2 5 797896 10092 28376 1243996 0 0 42 15818 377 298 23 4 73 0 2 3 797896 9572 28376 1244072 0 0 15 15003 795 146 0 2 98 0 2 3 797896 9232 28400 1244136 0 0 13 14039 716 123 0 3 96 0 2 3 797896 8732 28408 1244208 0 0 14 14344 642 154 0 2 98 0 2 3 797896 8324 28416 1244280 6 0 21 13928 543 129 0 1 99 0 3 2 797896 7868 28424 1244364 0 0 17 16170 487 135 0 2 98 0 3 2 796852 7272 28432 1244464 10 0 30 17208 441 138 0 1 98 0 1 0 786380 10376 28516 1246020 115 0 534 11009 553 641 1 3 96 here things become more normalish. procs memory swap io system cpu r b w swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id 0 1 0 786380 8336 28608 1247252 346 0 5020 435 1145 1244 7 2 91 0 0 0 786380 8208 28664 1249480 290 0 1961 430 810 770 2 1 97 0 3 0 786380 8436 28760 1249292 0 0 2494 233 649 648 3 2 95 0 1 0 786380 12096 28820 1244136 275 0 1524 64 627 596 4 2 95 0 0 0 786380 8224 28900 1247824 18 0 1338 326 691 588 2 2 95 0 0 0 786380 8192 28968 1247780 0 0 427 28 520 389 2 0 98 0 0 0 786380 8304 29092 1247968 0 0 283 870 420 243 1 1 98 0 0 0 786380 8292 29156 1248000 0 0 211 26 268 117 0 0 100 0 0 0 786380 11208 29288 1245092 2 0 174 764 398 226 0 1 98 0 0 0 786380 9124 29368 1247100 0 0 402 38 422 220 1 1 98 0 2 1 786380 8176 29460 1248032 1 0 246 681 657 433 1 1 98 0 0 0 786380 8152 29556 1248024 0 0 357 99 377 197 0 1 99 0 0 0 786380 8416 29716 1247720 0 0 829 39 411 239 1 0 99 0 0 0 786380 11880 29824 1243912 54 0 570 193 518 355 1 1 98 0 0 0 786380 12288 29896 1243236 55 0 507 82 421 247 1 0 98 -- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)