Just now I was forced to remotely reboot my CentOS 6.3 system due to a ultra high load (75!) that paralyzed the system. This is a web/mail server that serves a wordpress blog (mySQL + PHP). Is there any log I can analyze and try to discover what cause that?This is the email I have received now from the system about the event yesterday:This is an automated message notifying you that the 5 minute load average on your system is 75.91.This has exceeded the 10 threshold.One Minute      - 83.24Five Minutes    - 75.91Fifteen Minutes - 39.35top - 22:25:30 up 122 days,  7:28,  0 users,  load average: 99.14, 80.70, 42.31Tasks: 298 total,   1 running, 297 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombieCpu(s):  1.2%us,  0.5%sy,  0.0%ni, 98.1%id,  0.3%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%stMem:   1020176k total,   956828k used,    63348k free,     2788k buffersSwap:  4194296k total,  1391900k used,  2802396k free,    25164k cached PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               1 root      20   0 19352  448  444 S  0.0  0.0   0:08.27 /sbin/init                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [kthreadd]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            3 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:09.43 [migration/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         4 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   1884:48 [ksoftirqd/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         5 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [migration/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:06.06 [watchdog/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          7 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:07.81 [migration/1]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         8 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [migration/1]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         9 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   7:25.62 [ksoftirqd/1]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        10 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:04.58 [watchdog/1]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         11 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   4:48.95 [events/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           12 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   9:13.85 [events/1]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           13 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [cgroup]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             14 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:08.21 [khelper]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            15 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [netns]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              16 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [async/mgr]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          17 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [pm]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 18 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:21.72 [sync_supers]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        19 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:20.65 [bdi-default]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        20 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [kintegrityd/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      21 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [kintegrityd/1]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      22 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   5:26.09 [kblockd/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          23 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:22.90 [kblockd/1] I am not sure if this can help.Everything appears to be using 0% of CPU...this is another email...This is an automated message notifying you that the 5 minute load average on your system is 70.53.This has exceeded the 10 threshold.One Minute      - 94.79Five Minutes    - 70.53Fifteen Minutes - 32.68top - 22:23:34 up 122 days,  7:26,  0 users,  load average: 96.88, 74.74, 35.91Tasks: 283 total,   2 running, 281 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombieCpu(s):  1.2%us,  0.5%sy,  0.0%ni, 98.1%id,  0.3%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%stMem:   1020176k total,   970440k used,    49736k free,     3196k buffersSwap:  4194296k total,  1249404k used,  2944892k free,    29836k cached PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            6715 apache    20   0  217m 7804 3252 D  1.9  0.8   0:00.28 /usr/sbin/httpd -k start -DSSL                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     6770 apache    20   0  218m 8772 3368 D  1.9  0.9   0:00.28 /usr/sbin/httpd -k start -DSSL                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     6799 apache    20   0  301m 8088 3184 D  1.9  0.8   0:00.14 /usr/sbin/httpd -k start -DSSL                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     7265 root      20   0 15160 1220  808 R  1.9  0.1   0:00.02 /usr/bin/top -c -b -n 1                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            7266 root      20   0 15160 1220  808 R  1.9  0.1   0:00.02 /usr/bin/top -c -b -n 1                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               1 root      20   0 19352  448  444 S  0.0  0.0   0:08.27 /sbin/init                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [kthreadd]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            3 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:09.43 [migration/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         4 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   1884:48 [ksoftirqd/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         5 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [migration/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:06.06 [watchdog/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          7 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:07.81 [migration/1]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         8 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [migration/1]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         9 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   7:22.58 [ksoftirqd/1]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        10 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:04.58 [watchdog/1]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         11 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   4:48.95 [events/0]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           12 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   9:13.85 [events/1]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           13 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [cgroup]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             14 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:08.21 [khelper]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            15 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [netns]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              16 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [async/mgr]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          17 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 [pm]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 18 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:21.72 [sync_supers]                       Yes, I am using Apache. 75 is the load average saw on top for the last 5 minutes.
Is there a way to discover why my server had a high load
logs;freeze;load