Zombie process utilising 99% of the CPU....

[gany59]

Hello Folks,

I have an issue with one of my hp-ux box, the CPU utilisation is about 99%. So many zombie process are there like some 500 processes.

root 221280 762056 1 0:00
root 225392 762056 0 0:00
root 233570 762056 0 0:00
root 254138 762056 1 0:00
root 270514 762056 0 0:00
root 299228 762056 1 0:00
root 307324 762056 0 0:00
root 319612 762056 1 0:00
root 344286 762056 0 0:00
root 368824 762056 0 0:00
root 377002 762056 0 0:00
root 381090 762056 1 0:00
root 385140 762056 0 0:00
root 393332 762056 0 0:00
root 397400 762056 1 0:00
root 401544 762056 0 0:00
root 405740 762056 0 0:00
root 409758 762056 1 0:00
root 430138 762056 0 0:00
root 458874 762056 0 0:00
root 475364 762056 1 0:00
root 479398 762056 1 0:00
root 487458 762056 0 0:00
root 491520 762056 1 0:00
root 495768 762056 1 0:00
root 503852 762056 0 0:00
root 507990 762056 0 0:00
root 512032 762056 1 0:00
root 516168 762056 1 0:00
root 528426 762056 1 0:00
root 532492 762056 0 0:00
root 540868 762056 0 0:00
root 544774 762056 0 0:00
root 548954 762056 1 0:00
root 553118 762056 0 0:00
root 561254 762056 3 0:00
root 569534 762056 0 0:00
root 573464 762056 0 0:00
root 581646 762056 1 0:00
root 598242 762056 1 0:00
root 618578 762056 1 0:00
root 622712 762056 0 0:00

So can one help me, how to kill all the zombie process in one shot.

Thanks in advance...

[Shibin_2]

You can't kill defunct processes. You need to reboot the system to clear these.

[gany59]

Since its a production box, is there any other way to kill all those zombies..

[Torsten.]

>> So can one help me, how to kill all the zombie process in one shot.


Reboot.



You can't kill a zombie.

[Shibin_2]

No. Reboot is only way to get rid off these.

[Dennis Handly]

>zombie process utilising 99% of the CPU

Zombies don't take up CPU time. Something else is doing that.

>is there any other way to kill all those zombies.

See below.

>Shibin: You can't kill defunct processes. You need to reboot the system to clear these.

This isn't true. You can kill zombies by killing the zombie master.
What does "ps -fp 762056" show?
Is it more important to keep zombie master alive or to kill the zombies?

[gany59]

Hello Denis,

Now the master zombie pid is 1249292.

So i tried out the below command

#ps -fp 1249292

UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
root 1249292 1 0 23:57:40 - 0:34 /opt/IBM/ITM/aix526/ux/bin/kuxagent

Can u pls let me know what can i do on that.

THnaks!!!!!

[Dennis Handly]

>Now the master zombie PID is 1249292.

(zombie master :-)

>/opt/IBM/ITM/aix526/ux/bin/kuxagent
>Can you please let me know what can I do on that?

Is this kuxagent process important? If you kill it, can you restart it?

This talks about killing it:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v15r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.itm.doc_6.1/betaworkbook364.htm

[Turgay Cavdar]

Try to stop/start tivoli agent...

[gany59]

how can i stop and start the kuxagent process ?

[Turgay Cavdar]

# /opt/IBM/ITM/bin/itmcmd agent stop ux (stop agent)
# /opt/IBM/ITM/bin/itmcmd agent start ux (start agent)

[Bill Hassell]

> You can't kill defunct processes.

That's because a zombie process is already dead. It is not running or consuming any CPU cycles. It is just an entry in the process table waiting to be properly closed by it's parent. Zombies are usually caused by poor programming techniques in the parent. Contact IBM for a solution to prevent future zombies (unless root is randomly using kill -9)

[Terry.giblin]

How do stop a process that only calls itself?

You only get one chance.

Take away its execute privilige.