High CPU Utilization and Spawning Bash Commands

  • 7021402
  • 14-Sep-2017
  • 09-Apr-2019

Environment

GroupWise Disaster Recovery (Reload) 510130 - 510150

Situation

High CPU utilization on the server, or the collectors. 
Multiple bash commands spawning and using up resources. 
When running ps aux | grep bash shows bash commands for Reload: cronlib


The GroupWise system is slowing down, mail flow stops, all due to the bash commands and high CPU utilization (Reload Collector on the GroupWise server).


Resolution

This was a bug found within older builds of GroupWise Disaster Recovery (GWDR) from builds 510130 to build 510150. Upgrading to the latest build of GWDR resolves the issue. Follow the steps to upgrade: 


1. Clear the bash commands from the server. 

From a terminal prompt type: kill -9 $(ps -ef f | grep "bash -c" | awk '{print $2}')

2. Type : reloadu. This will start the upgrade. Give it a few minutes to finish. 

3. Check the Overview in the Reload Administration for the version of GWDR is 510152 or higher. 

Note: If running GWDR Collectors, be sure to clear the bash commands on those servers and run the upgrade as well. 

Cause

This was caused by a problem with the code using an octal set for the date. Once the server reached August (08), or September (09), it could not read the date range correctly, and would not kill the spawned daemon processes. This resulted in multiple bash commands and high CPU utilization.