System load is very high (Load averages: 15.28, 15.27, 15.27) and more sleeping process (217)

[senthil_kumar_1]

Hi Chris Huys,

1) I am not able to understand "61/4 = 15.25", please explain this?


2)Why do you want to run "who -u"?

3)what is the difference between "ps -ef" and "ps -el"?

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Senthil:

> 1) I am not able to understand "61/4 = 15.25", please explain this?

Look at your 'vmstat' data and *read* the manpages for the meaning of the values!

> 2)Why do you want to run "who -u"?

What happens if a client session (as from a terminal emulator) aborts? Do you have old sessions, perhaps consuming resources running?

> 3)what is the difference between "ps -ef" and "ps -el"?

Again, run the commands; look at the different output; *read* the manpages and see what you might learn.

Regards!

...JRF...

[chris huys_4 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

> 61/4 = 15.25
"vmstat 5 5" output showed 61 blocked processes.
4 is the number of processors in the system.

61/4, equals, to the part in the load average that, is the result of the blocked processes.

I.e. if you wouldnt have had any blocked processes, the load average would have been
load average: 15.28 (-15.25= 0.03), 15.27 (-15.25 = 0.02), 15.27 (-15.25 = 0.02)
i.e.
load average: 0.03, 0.02, 0.02

who -u
Im pretty sure the blocked processes are shell processes, that couldnt exit "normally", thats why, who -u would show them.

ps -el / ps -elf, gives the wait reason in hex, not that interesting, but just a hunch from me.. anyway blocked processes should there be allready for a long long time, doing nothing .. and as you mentioned that the amount of processes constantly increases, this is probably because of the number of blocked processes increasing, checking for a few days which processes are causing the process list to increase, should also lead you to the blocked processes..

killing, kill -9, these blocked processes, once you find them, would then 'workaround' the problem..

Greetz,
Chris

[Bill Hassell]

> more sleeping process (217)

A sleeping process is doing nothing so they do not contribute to the load -- unless these processes wake every few milliseconds, run a few instructions and then go to sleep again. That may be exactly what is happening. What are the 217 processes? Are they shells? If so, these may be orphaned logins caused by users that do not logout properly and the SIGHUP normally enabled in /etc/profile has been turned off.

Because of the long time (200+ days), it is highly likely that these processes weren't terminated when the user disconnected and they are spinning around trying figure out what to do. The load factor is a measure of the number of processes waiting to run or actually running. These orphaned processes are probably running for a short time several times a second. That's why there is almost no user time recorded.

I have also seen this as a largepages issue with 10.20 coupled with a fairly messed up patch problem with disk mirroring. The symptom is that the largepages table is constantly filled. The fix is to disable large pages in the kernel (after a reboot).

[senthil_kumar_1]

Hi All,

#who -u
ze4egi pts/56 Jun 19 22:35 . 18532 10.151.0.24


#ps -ef | grep -i sh
root 4 0 0 Oct 10 ? 28:26 unhashdaemon
root 38 0 0 Oct 10 ? 65:55 vx_iflush_thread
root 42 0 0 Oct 10 ? 16:03 vx_logflush_thread
he4b2s 5441 1 0 Apr 7 pts/27 0:23 -sh
medcpx 1677 1 0 Apr 28 pts/50 0:16 -sh
he4b2s 2447 1 0 Apr 7 ? 0:25 -sh
ze4egi 17305 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:58 -sh
root 1982 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 /sbin/sh /usr/dt/bin/dtrc
te9euu 12057 11469 0 Oct 20 ? 1:28 -sh
yezkh1 4681 1 0 Oct 10 ? 1:27 -sh
ze4egi 12156 1 0 Apr 11 ? 0:23 -sh
root 16460 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:00 -sh
yezkh1 5346 1 0 Oct 10 ? 1:28 -sh
ze4egi 17403 1 0 Jan 24 ? 0:49 -sh
he4b2s 14177 1 0 Mar 31 ? 0:24 -sh
yezkh1 5878 1 0 Oct 10 ? 1:28 -sh
ze4egi 19037 1 0 Apr 7 ? 0:24 -sh
medcpx 27347 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:17 -sh
root 1810 1 0 Oct 10 ? 47:07 /bin/ksh /usr/local/vaxprint/vpdaemon.sh
he4b2s 15157 1 0 Mar 31 ? 0:29 -sh
ze4egi 11703 1 0 Oct 19 ? 1:19 -sh
ze4egi 21160 1 0 Nov 15 ? 1:14 -sh
ze4egi 5692 1 0 Apr 11 ? 0:21 -sh
ze4egi 16150 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:57 -sh
ze4egi 21024 1 0 Oct 19 ? 1:24 -sh
he4b2s 7411 1 0 Mar 31 ? 0:29 -sh
medcpx 19129 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:16 -sh
ze4egi 16257 1 0 Oct 19 ? 1:22 -sh
he4b2s 24449 1 0 Apr 4 ? 0:24 -sh
medcpx 1640 1 0 Apr 28 pts/49 0:16 -sh
ze4egi 20107 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:49 -sh
he4b2s 5618 1 0 Apr 7 pts/28 0:26 -sh
medcpx 19538 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:15 -sh
ze4egi 21184 1 0 Dec 5 ? 1:04 -sh
he4b2s 2878 1 0 Apr 5 ? 0:25 -sh
ze4egi 3729 1 0 Oct 20 ? 1:20 -sh
medcpx 14521 1 0 Apr 28 pts/42 0:20 -sh
he4b2s 3028 1 0 Apr 7 ? 0:25 -sh
ze4egi 8183 1 0 Apr 8 ? 0:23 -sh
he4b2s 24603 1 0 Mar 31 ? 0:29 -sh
root 18047 1 0 Oct 19 ? 0:00 -sh
ze4egi 10615 1 0 Oct 18 ? 1:25 -sh
ze4egi 23396 1 0 Apr 8 ? 0:24 -sh
medcpx 4661 1 0 Apr 26 ? 0:19 -sh
root 11469 1 0 Oct 20 ? 0:00 -sh
medcpx 19474 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:19 -sh
ze4egi 11632 1 0 Oct 20 ? 1:31 -sh
medcpx 12828 1 0 Apr 28 pts/53 0:19 -sh
medcpx 1184 1 0 Apr 28 pts/47 0:17 -sh
root 20553 18532 0 22:40:52 pts/56 0:00 -sh
ze4egi 14359 1 0 Oct 20 ? 1:27 -sh
medcpx 23647 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:16 -sh
ze4egi 18532 18530 0 22:35:29 pts/56 0:00 -ksh
ze4egi 7204 1 0 Feb 9 ? 0:46 -sh
pe45my 28841 1 0 May 23 ? 0:09 -sh
medcpx 10906 1 0 Apr 28 pts/52 0:18 -sh
medcpx 3898 1 0 Apr 28 pts/51 0:18 -sh
medcpx 12077 1 0 Apr 27 ? 0:17 -sh
medcpx 20616 1 0 Apr 27 ? 0:17 -sh
ze4egi 10065 1 0 Apr 11 ? 0:23 -sh
medcpx 6372 1 0 Apr 26 ? 0:23 -sh
medcpx 1478 1 0 Apr 28 pts/48 0:16 -sh
medcpx 9335 1 0 Apr 28 pts/55 0:15 -sh
medcpx 24261 1 0 Apr 26 ? 0:20 -sh
medcpx 6621 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:17 -sh
root 29243 20553 1 00:29:02 pts/56 0:00 grep -i sh
he4b2s 4142 1 0 Apr 7 ? 0:24 -sh
medcpx 3640 1 0 Apr 26 ? 0:18 -sh
he4b2s 26069 1 0 Apr 7 ? 0:29 -sh
medcpx 1024 1 0 Apr 28 pts/46 0:17 -sh
medcpx 849 1 0 Apr 28 pts/45 0:18 -sh


Note: I have tried to kill "sh" but not able to kill.

For example,

# ps -ef | grep -i ze4egi
ze4egi 17305 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:58 -sh
ze4egi 12156 1 0 Apr 11 ? 0:23 -sh
ze4egi 17403 1 0 Jan 24 ? 0:49 -sh
ze4egi 19037 1 0 Apr 7 ? 0:24 -sh
ze4egi 11703 1 0 Oct 19 ? 1:19 -sh
ze4egi 21160 1 0 Nov 15 ? 1:14 -sh
ze4egi 5692 1 0 Apr 11 ? 0:21 -sh
ze4egi 16150 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:57 -sh
ze4egi 21024 1 0 Oct 19 ? 1:24 -sh
ze4egi 16257 1 0 Oct 19 ? 1:22 -sh
ze4egi 21632 16460 0 Jan 20 ? 0:47 -su
ze4egi 20107 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:49 -sh
root 4212 20553 1 00:42:33 pts/56 0:00 grep -i ze4egi
ze4egi 19175 18047 0 Oct 19 ? 1:26 -su
ze4egi 21184 1 0 Dec 5 ? 1:04 -sh
ze4egi 3729 1 0 Oct 20 ? 1:20 -sh
ze4egi 8183 1 0 Apr 8 ? 0:23 -sh
ze4egi 10615 1 0 Oct 18 ? 1:25 -sh
ze4egi 23396 1 0 Apr 8 ? 0:24 -sh
ze4egi 11632 1 0 Oct 20 ? 1:31 -sh
ze4egi 14359 1 0 Oct 20 ? 1:27 -sh
ze4egi 18532 18530 0 22:35:29 pts/56 0:00 -ksh
ze4egi 7204 1 0 Feb 9 ? 0:46 -sh
ze4egi 10065 1 0 Apr 11 ? 0:23 -sh


#kill -9 17305


#ps -ef | grep -i 17305
ze4egi 17305 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:58 -sh



My Questions:


1)How to solve the issue?

2)How to enable SIGHUP in /etc/profile?

[Dennis Handly]

>#kill -9 17305
>#ps -ef | grep 17305
ze4egi 17305 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:58 -sh

(Better to use: ps -fp 17305
Unless you want the children too.)

>1)How to solve the issue?

You don't. Reboot or ignore them.
Probably a NFS hang?

>2)How to enable SIGHUP in /etc/profile?

What do you really want to do?
If you want to ignore it, you run each command or script with nohup(1).
If you want to block it, you can use the trap command. But this should be in individual scripts and not in /etc/profile!

[Dennis Handly]

>2)How to enable SIGHUP in /etc/profile?

(Ah, what Bill said.)

If kill -9 doesn't work, it isn't likely SIGHUP is being disabled is your problem.
But you can check to see if "1" is on the trap commands in /etc/profile.

[chris huys_4]

Hi,

DH> You don't. Reboot or ignore them.
Actually the system will eventually have filled up the whole process list, controlled by nproc kernel parameter, and will not be able to create new processes after that, which will then end up in the system needed to be rebooted.

For the rest install the latest posix?-sh patch, reboot the system and if that still doesnt solve the problem, then check how the orphaned shells are created, probably some user(s) doing something specific f.e. exiting the app in a specific way, as I suppose that not all users all the time are creating this orphaned shells, and work from there.

Greetz,
Chris

[Dennis Handly]

>Chris: then check how the orphaned shells are created, probably some user(s) doing something specific f.e. exiting the app in a specific way

If all these shells can't be killed with kill -9, there isn't much that can be done.
If they are hung over NFS, then that needs to be more reliable.

[senthil_kumar_1]

Hi DH,

I have ran following command.

#ps -fp 17305
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME COMMAND
root 0 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:15 swapper
root 1 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:37 init
root 2 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:34 vhand
root 3 0 0 Oct 10 ? 488:24 statdaemon
root 4 0 0 Oct 10 ? 28:33 unhashdaemon
root 7 0 0 Oct 10 ? 471:58 ttisr
root 13 0 0 Oct 10 ? 28:54 lvmkd
root 14 0 0 Oct 10 ? 29:05 lvmkd
root 15 0 0 Oct 10 ? 28:55 lvmkd
root 16 0 0 Oct 10 ? 29:05 lvmkd
root 17 0 0 Oct 10 ? 28:47 lvmkd
root 18 0 0 Oct 10 ? 29:02 lvmkd
root 19 0 0 Oct 10 ? 365:55 netisr
root 20 0 1 Oct 10 ? 184:07 netisr
root 21 0 0 Oct 10 ? 356:26 netisr
root 22 0 0 Oct 10 ? 320:21 netisr
root 23 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:08 nvsisr
root 24 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 supsched
root 25 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 smpsched
root 26 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 smpsched
root 27 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 smpsched
root 28 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 smpsched
root 29 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 sblksched
root 30 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 sblksched
root 31 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 strmem
root 32 0 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 strweld
root 18535 1 0 Nov 1 console 0:00 /usr/sbin/getty console console
root 777 776 0 Oct 10 ? 61:04 /usr/sbin/netfmt -C -F -f /var/adm/nettl.LOG00 -c /var/adm/c
root 941 1 0 Oct 10 ? 84:35 /usr/sbin/rpc.statd
root 37 0 0 Oct 10 ? 26:05 vx_sched_thread
root 38 0 0 Oct 10 ? 66:07 vx_iflush_thread
root 39 0 0 Oct 10 ? 27:40 vx_ifree_thread
root 40 0 0 Oct 10 ? 28:40 vx_inactive_cache_thread
root 41 0 0 Oct 10 ? 47:33 vx_delxwri_thread
root 42 0 0 Oct 10 ? 16:06 vx_logflush_thread
root 43 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:09 vx_attrsync_thread
root 44 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 45 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 46 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 47 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 48 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 49 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 50 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 51 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 52 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 53 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 54 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 55 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 56 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 57 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 58 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 59 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 60 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 61 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 62 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 63 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 64 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 65 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 66 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 67 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 68 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 69 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 70 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 71 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 72 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 73 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:08 vx_inactive_thread
root 74 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 75 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 76 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:07 vx_inactive_thread
root 77 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 78 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 79 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 80 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 81 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 82 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 83 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 84 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 85 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 86 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 87 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 88 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:04 vx_inactive_thread
root 89 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 90 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 91 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 92 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 93 0 0 Oct 10 ? 1:03 vx_inactive_thread
root 947 1 0 Oct 10 ? 17:31 /usr/sbin/rpc.lockd
he4b2s 5441 1 0 Apr 7 pts/27 0:23 -sh
root 666 1 0 Oct 10 ? 1:57 /usr/sbin/swagentd
root 403 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 /opt/apps/mx/ME+/bin/dbctldaemon 20 10 0
root 402 1 0 Oct 10 ? 8:55 /opt/apps/mx/ME+/bin/icaddaemon 160 80 0
root 615 1 0 Oct 10 ? 1850:22 /usr/sbin/syncer
root 958 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:42 /usr/sbin/automountd -T -v
root 961 0 0 Oct 10 console 1:45 autofs_proc
root 981 1 0 Oct 10 ? 24:20 /usr/sbin/inetd -l
root 876 1 0 Oct 10 ? 4:52 /usr/sbin/portmap
medcpx 1677 1 0 Apr 28 pts/50 0:17 -sh
root 925 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:14 /usr/sbin/biod 8
root 1744 1 0 Oct 10 ? 5:07 /usr/sbin/nfsd 8
root 747 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 /usr/sbin/ptydaemon
root 1166 1 0 Oct 10 ? 14:35 /opt/dce/sbin/rpcd
root 766 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 /usr/lbin/nktl_daemon 0 0 0 0 0 1 -2
root 776 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 /usr/lbin/ntl_reader 0 1 1 1 1000 /var/adm/nettl /var/adm/co
root 900 1 0 Oct 10 ? 40:09 /usr/lib/netsvc/yp/ypbind -ypset
root 1482 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 /usr/sbin/envd
pe45my 20748 402 0 21:58:15 ? 0:38 /opt/apps/mx/ME+/bin/icaddaemon 160 80 0
root 908 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 /usr/sbin/keyserv
root 927 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:13 /usr/sbin/biod 8
root 928 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:13 /usr/sbin/biod 8
root 926 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:15 /usr/sbin/biod 8
root 929 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:16 /usr/sbin/biod 8
root 930 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:15 /usr/sbin/biod 8
root 931 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:13 /usr/sbin/biod 8
root 932 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:14 /usr/sbin/biod 8
root 1469 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:06 /opt/pred/bin/psmond
root 1433 1 0 Oct 10 ? 10:13 /usr/sbin/cron
he4b2s 2447 1 0 Apr 7 ? 0:25 -sh
root 1738 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:04 /usr/sbin/rpc.mountd
ze4egi 17305 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:59 -sh
root 1221 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 /usr/sbin/vtdaemon
hzrwh7 10591 10590 0 21:30:11 ? 0:00 rmail -d hzrwh7
root 1982 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 /sbin/sh /usr/dt/bin/dtrc
root 1423 1 0 Oct 10 ? 4:41 /opt/pd/lbin/pdclientd
root 2001 1982 0 Oct 10 ? 0:03 /usr/dt/bin/dtlogin
lp 1387 1 0 Oct 10 ? 4:57 /usr/sbin/lpsched
te9euu 12057 11469 0 Oct 20 ? 1:29 -sh
yezkh1 4681 1 0 Oct 10 ? 1:27 -sh
root 1413 1 0 Oct 10 ? 4:16 basicdsd
root 1459 1 0 Oct 10 ? 22:07 /usr/sbin/stm/uut/bin/sys/diagmond
ze4egi 12156 1 0 Apr 11 ? 0:24 -sh
root 16460 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:00 -sh
yezkh1 5346 1 0 Oct 10 ? 1:29 -sh
root 1612 1 0 Oct 10 ? 5:30 /opt/perf/bin/pvalarmd
ze4egi 17403 1 0 Jan 24 ? 0:50 -sh
he4b2s 14177 1 0 Mar 31 ? 0:24 -sh
root 2167 1 0 Oct 10 ? 22:21 /etc/opt/resmon/lbin/p_client
yezkh1 5878 1 0 Oct 10 ? 1:29 -sh
ze4egi 19037 1 0 Apr 7 ? 0:24 -sh
root 1683 1 0 Oct 10 ? 7:41 /etc/opt/resmon/lbin/emsagent
medcpx 27347 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:17 -sh
root 1717 1 0 Oct 10 ? 25:02 /opt/hpnp/bin/hpnpd
root 1810 1 0 Oct 10 ? 47:18 /bin/ksh /usr/local/vaxprint/vpdaemon.sh
root 2201 1459 1 Oct 10 ? 13:58 diaglogd
root 1747 1744 0 Oct 10 ? 0:01 /usr/sbin/nfsd 8
root 1765 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 /usr/sbin/rpc.pcnfsd
root 1749 1744 0 Oct 10 ? 0:23 /usr/sbin/nfsd 8
root 1750 1744 0 Oct 10 ? 3:22 /usr/sbin/nfsd 8
root 1751 1744 0 Oct 10 ? 5:07 /usr/sbin/nfsd 8
root 1752 1744 0 Oct 10 ? 0:01 /usr/sbin/nfsd 8
prodtmp1 646 645 0 May 13 ? 0:13 rmail -d prodtmp1
root 1754 1744 0 Oct 10 ? 0:23 /usr/sbin/nfsd 8
root 1755 1744 0 Oct 10 ? 3:22 /usr/sbin/nfsd 8
root 10308 1 0 Apr 28 ? 1:59 sendmail: rejecting connections on port 25: load average: 16
root 2165 1 0 Oct 10 ? 0:00 /usr/lbin/ups_mond -f /etc/ups_conf -e ups_monchild
daemon 2159 1 0 Oct 10 ? 3:24 /oradata1/home/dba/oracle/product/8.0.5/bin/tnslsnr LISTENER
he4b2s 15157 1 0 Mar 31 ? 0:30 -sh
ze4egi 11703 1 0 Oct 19 ? 1:19 -sh
ze4egi 21160 1 0 Nov 15 ? 1:14 -sh
ze4egi 5692 1 0 Apr 11 ? 0:21 -sh
ze4egi 16150 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:57 -sh
ze4egi 21024 1 0 Oct 19 ? 1:24 -sh
root 10590 1 0 21:30:11 ? 0:00 sendmail: VAA10587: from queue
root 27598 981 0 Jan 7 ? 0:00 /usr/dt/bin/rpc.ttdbserver
he4b2s 7411 1 0 Mar 31 ? 0:29 -sh
medcpx 19129 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:16 -sh
ze4egi 16257 1 0 Oct 19 ? 1:22 -sh
he4b2s 24449 1 0 Apr 4 ? 0:24 -sh
root 2463 1 0 Feb 15 ? 0:00 /opt/perf/bin/ttd
ze4egi 21632 16460 0 Jan 20 ? 0:47 -su
medcpx 1640 1 0 Apr 28 pts/49 0:17 -sh
root 340 1 0 Oct 19 ? 23:50 /usr/sbin/syslogd -D
ze4egi 20107 1 0 Jan 20 ? 0:49 -sh
he4b2s 5618 1 0 Apr 7 pts/28 0:27 -sh
brinker 7530 402 0 Mar 30 ? 0:01 /opt/apps/mx/ME+/bin/icaddaemon 160 80 0
ze4egi 19175 18047 0 Oct 19 ? 1:27 -su
medcpx 19538 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:15 -sh
ze4egi 21184 1 0 Dec 5 ? 1:04 -sh
he4b2s 2878 1 0 Apr 5 ? 0:25 -sh
ze4egi 3729 1 0 Oct 20 ? 1:21 -sh
medcpx 14521 1 0 Apr 28 pts/42 0:20 -sh
he4b2s 3028 1 0 Apr 7 ? 0:26 -sh
ze4egi 8183 1 0 Apr 8 ? 0:24 -sh
he4b2s 24603 1 0 Mar 31 ? 0:29 -sh
root 18047 1 0 Oct 19 ? 0:00 -sh
ze4egi 10615 1 0 Oct 18 ? 1:25 -sh
he2739 6573 402 0 18:31:11 ? 0:36 /opt/apps/mx/ME+/bin/icaddaemon 160 80 0
root 15884 1 0 Dec 13 ? 0:00 sendmail: BAA15880: from queue
ze4egi 23396 1 0 Apr 8 ? 0:25 -sh
medcpx 4661 1 0 Apr 26 ? 0:20 -sh
root 11469 1 0 Oct 20 ? 0:00 -sh
medcpx 19474 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:19 -sh
keane 19694 402 0 23:18:47 ? 0:01 /opt/apps/mx/ME+/bin/icaddaemon 160 80 0
ze4egi 11632 1 0 Oct 20 ? 1:31 -sh
medcpx 12828 1 0 Apr 28 pts/53 0:19 -sh
medcpx 1184 1 0 Apr 28 pts/47 0:18 -sh
root 20790 1810 0 02:09:10 ? 0:00 sleep 20
ze4egi 18606 18604 0 02:03:30 pts/56 0:00 -ksh
ze4egi 14359 1 0 Oct 20 ? 1:27 -sh
medcpx 23647 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:16 -sh
ke5qzf 16492 402 0 23:09:39 ? 0:09 /opt/apps/mx/ME+/bin/icaddaemon 160 80 0
ze4egi 7204 1 0 Feb 9 ? 0:47 -sh
pe45my 28841 1 0 May 23 ? 0:09 -sh
medcpx 10906 1 0 Apr 28 pts/52 0:18 -sh
medcpx 3898 1 0 Apr 28 pts/51 0:18 -sh
medcpx 12077 1 0 Apr 27 ? 0:17 -sh
visual1 15885 15884 0 Dec 13 ? 1:07 rmail -d visual1
root 18604 981 2 02:03:30 pts/56 0:00 rlogind -B /etc/security.banner
medcpx 20616 1 0 Apr 27 ? 0:17 -sh
ze4egi 10065 1 0 Apr 11 ? 0:23 -sh
medcpx 6372 1 0 Apr 26 ? 0:23 -sh
medcpx 1478 1 0 Apr 28 pts/48 0:16 -sh
medcpx 9335 1 0 Apr 28 pts/55 0:16 -sh
medcpx 24261 1 0 Apr 26 ? 0:20 -sh
medcpx 6621 1 0 Apr 28 ? 0:17 -sh
he4b2s 4142 1 0 Apr 7 ? 0:24 -sh
medcpx 3640 1 0 Apr 26 ? 0:19 -sh
he4b2s 26069 1 0 Apr 7 ? 0:30 -sh
medcpx 1024 1 0 Apr 28 pts/46 0:18 -sh
medcpx 849 1 0 Apr 28 pts/45 0:19 -sh
root 1962 981 0 Jun 19 ? 0:00 bootpd
root 18768 18606 0 02:03:41 pts/56 0:00 -sh
root 645 1 0 May 13 ? 0:00 sendmail: CAA00643: from queue
root 20791 18768 6 02:09:14 pts/56 0:00 ps -ef -fp 17305
tombers 8492 402 0 01:34:55 ? 0:02 /opt/apps/mx/ME+/bin/icaddaemon 160 80 0



My Questions:

1)what is the purpose of above command?

2)How to kill those orphaned shells?