Bug#399776: apache2: Apache 2.2 spawns lots of processes and freeze the box

["Stefan Fritsch" <sf@sfritsch.de>]

> We have mod_python, redirection with mod_proxy/mod_rewrite, PHP with
> memory limit set to 32M, DAV and DAV/SVN. The are no errors or other
> interesting entries in apache logs nor in any other log.

Maybe you could try disabling modules one by one to see which one is the
cause? There are reports about memory leaks in

mod_python (with more than one handler):

http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MODPYTHON-181?page=all

and mod_proxy:

http://www.modsecurity.org/blog/archives/2006/08/apache_reverse.html

Try whether MaxRequestsPerChild, MaxKeepAliveRequests, etc. help.