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Fix Apache - No space left on device: Couldn't create accept lock or Cannot create SSLMutex

Fri, 2005-08-05 14:09 — carlos

When dealing with mem-leaks in my mod_perl-apps I ran into a curious apache-problem. After a while apache could not be started but failed with strange errors like:
[emerg] (28)No space left on device: Couldn't create accept lock
or
[crit] (28)No space left on device: mod_rewrite: could not create rewrite_log_lock Configuration Failed
or
[Wed Dec 07 00:00:09 2005] [error] (28)No space left on device: Cannot create SSLMutex
There was definitely enough space on the device where the locks are stored (default /usr/local/apache2/logs/). I tried to explicetely different Lockfiles using the LockFile-directive but this did not help. I also tried a non-default AcceptMutex (flock) which then solved the acceptlock-issue and ended in the rewrite_log_lock-issue.
Only reboot of the system helped out of my crisis.
Solution: There were myriads of semaphore-arrays left, owned by my apache-user.
ipcs -s | grep apache
Removing this semaphores immediately solved the problem.
ipcs -s | grep apache | perl -e 'while (<STDIN>) { @a=split(/\s+/); print `ipcrm sem $a[1]`}'

Wed, 2008-04-30 06:40 — chetan

thanks Solved

saved me from much down time.
thanks lot
chetanM

Tue, 2007-08-07 11:31 — gara (not verified)

Thank you

Very usefull script

Sat, 2005-10-15 20:37 — Anonymous

Shell version

Hi ,
for sh lovers i am putting this command
ipcs -s | grep apache | awk ' { print $2 } ' | xargs ipcrm sem
Thanks,
Nightlife_king

Tue, 2005-10-11 08:55 — Anonymous

Thanks

THanks, i had the same problem and because of your post could fix it in no time

Fri, 2005-09-30 09:58 — Anonymous

thanks for your help

the following is doing the same if you don't want to use perl:
ipcs -s | grep apache | gawk '{ print $2 }' | xargs -n 1 ipcrm sem

Fri, 2005-09-30 08:23 — Anonymous

Re: Fix Apache - No space left on device: Couldn't create accept

carlos wrote: Removing this semaphores immediately solved the problem. ipcs -s | grep apache | perl -e 'while (<STDIN>) { @a=split(/\s+/); print `ipcrm sem $a[1]`}'

Great. You saved my live!!! (Rebooting was not an option for me).
Just my two cents. Next the equivalent with bash+textutils instead of perl (yes, I don't like perl, it's so ugly to read):
for ipsemId in $(ipcs -s | grep apache | cut -f 2 -d ' '); do ipcrm $ipsemId; done
Have a nice day

Wed, 2005-09-21 17:34 — Anonymous

Fix Apache - No space left on device: Couldn't create accept loc

Killing the semaphores is a nice temporary solution to this problem, but I have been dealing with it for months and I was wondering if there is a more permanent solution to the problem of memory leaks here?

Tue, 2005-08-23 09:29 — Anonymous

Thanks !!!

Hi, I've just found your webpage via Google's 2nd result on " [emerg] (28)No space left on device: Couldn't create accept lock " query.
Your solution applied and Apache running again in 2 mn !
My panic is down, I promise I definitvly change my VPS webhosting.
Many thanks for posting this dude !
See U.

Fri, 2005-08-12 18:51 — Anonymous

correction

Very helpful information, BUT the command line to fix the problem is not correct. The while() shold actually be while(<STDIN>). So cut-and-paste this line: 
ipcs -s | grep apache | perl -e 'while (<STDIN>) { @a=split(/\s+/); print `ipcrm sem $a[1]`}'
Eye-wink

Sat, 2005-08-13 15:37 — carlos

thanks fixed

ops didnt notice went i posted... looks like the <STDIN> got filtered....
thanks... (now updated)