Internal Server Error From No Where - Error Code: 500

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1

i have been using hestiacp for 2 years now, but seems like the problem is with the server because over 15 websites went down at the same time. Probaly ubuntu automactically uppgraded and caused this erorr?

The system works for a while when i restart nginix and apache then reverts to error 500 after a while.

I’ve tried restarting it several times, but no solution. What could be the cause of error?

apache error log

[Thu Nov 13 05:09:28…] AH00045: child process 1049131 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
…
[Thu Nov 13 05:09:30…] AH00046: child process 1049131 still did not exit, sending a SIGKILL

[Thu Nov 13 06:32:26…] AH10159: server is within MinSpareThreads of MaxRequestWorkers
[Thu Nov 13 06:46:33…] AH00484: server reached MaxRequestWorkers setting, consider raising

2

Maybe I’m wrong, but it looks to me like you’re under a DDoS attack, probably hundreds of bots trying to log in to one or more of your sites.

Check the logs for your sites:

tail -f /var/log/apache2/domains/HereYourDomain.error.log
1 Like
3

this is how one of the domain error logs looks like

216.244.66.235 - - [13/Nov/2025:06:44:45 +0100] “GET /product-category/uncategorized/?add_to_wishlist=390&_wpnonce=da0ded682c HTTP/1.0” 200 88006 “-” “Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; DotBot/1.2; +https://opensiteexplorer.org/dotbot; [email protected])”
216.244.66.235 - - [13/Nov/2025:06:45:13 +0100] “GET /product-category/uncategorized/?add_to_wishlist=931&_wpnonce=dab280a2cf HTTP/1.0” 200 88006 “-” “Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; DotBot/1.2; +https://opensiteexplorer.org/dotbot; [email protected])”
170.106.163.48 - - [13/Nov/2025:06:45:13 +0100] “GET /product/vj-luxury-wash/ HTTP/1.0” 200 32521 “-” “Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 13_2_3 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/13.0.3 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1”
216.244.66.235 - - [13/Nov/2025:06:45:41 +0100] “GET /shop/?add_to_wishlist=741&_wpnonce=dc5ec1e0ff HTTP/1.0” 200 150537 “-” “Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; DotBot/1.2; +https://opensiteexplorer.org/dotbot; [email protected])”
114.119.154.186 - - [13/Nov/2025:06:45:55 +0100] “GET /product/vjay-secrets-from-grandmas-pot/?rating=3 HTTP/1.0” 200 32479 “https://example.com/product/ebook/?verified=1&rating=3” “Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 7.0;) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile Safari/537.36 (compatible; PetalBot;+https://webmaster.petalsearch.com/site/petalbot)”
216.244.66.235 - - [13/Nov/2025:08:18:10 +0100] “GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1” 200 66 “-” “Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; DotBot/1.2; +https://opensiteexplorer.org/dotbot; [email protected])”
216.244.66.235 - - [13/Nov/2025:09:05:06 +0100] “GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1” 200 66 “-” “Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; DotBot/1.2; +https://opensiteexplorer.org/dotbot; [email protected])”
18.205.127.11 - - [13/Nov/2025:09:08:30 +0100] “GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1” 200 66 “-” “Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Amazonbot/0.1; +https://developer.amazon.com/support/amazonbot) Chrome/119.0.6045.214 Safari/537.36”
216.244.66.235 - - [13/Nov/2025:09:53:44 +0100] “GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1” 200 66 “-” “Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; DotBot/1.2; +https://opensiteexplorer.org/dotbot; [email protected])”
216.244.66.235 - - [13/Nov/2025:11:30:30 +0100] “GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1” 200 66 “-” “Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; DotBot/1.2; +https://opensiteexplorer.org/dotbot; [email protected])”
138.246.253.24 - - [13/Nov/2025:13:01:36 +0100] “GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1” 200 66 “-” “Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/103.0.5060.134 Safari/537.36”

4

That looks fine, no problem, you should check all the logs.

Anyway, show the output of this command:

curl -sS http://localhost:8081/server-status | grep -E '[0-9]\srequests'
2 Likes
5

Another website log:

20.222.232.51:0] AH01071: Got error ‘Primary script unknown’
[Thu Nov 13 06:44:48.800319 2025] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 1296229:tid 140616138741312] [client 20.222.232.51:0] AH01071: Got error ‘Primary script unknown’
[Thu Nov 13 06:44:49.262603 2025] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 1296229:tid 140615333434944] [client 20.222.232.51:0] AH01071: Got error ‘Primary script unknown’
[Thu Nov 13 06:44:49.740539 2025] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 1296229:tid 140615350220352] [client 20.222.232.51:0] AH01071: Got error ‘Primary script unknown’
[Thu Nov 13 06:44:50.218630 2025] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 1296229:tid 140615333434944] [client 20.222.232.51:0] AH01071: Got error ‘Primary script unknown’
[Thu Nov 13 06:44:50.725513 2025] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 1296229:tid 140616113563200] [client 20.222.232.51:0] AH01071: Got error ‘Primary script unknown’
[Thu Nov 13 06:44:51.198162 2025] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 1296229:tid 140615333434944] [client 20.222.232.51:0] AH01071: Got error ‘Primary script unknown’
[Thu Nov 13 06:44:51.700904 2025] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 1296229:tid 140616113563200] [client 20.222.232.51:0] AH01071: Got error ‘Primary script unknown’

Command status:

root@vmi267337:~# curl -sS http://207.180.212.51:8081/server-status | grep -E ‘[0-9]\srequests’
curl: (7) Failed to connect to 207.180.212.51 port 8081 after 0 ms: Connection refused
root@vmi267337:~# ^C
root@vmi267337:~# curl -sS http://vmi267337.contaboserver.net:8081/server-status | grep -E ‘[0-9]\srequests’

UPDATE:
All my website are down, dosen’t even show error 500 again. but i can still only access hestiacp admin panel.

6

Why don’t you use localhost?

7

root@vmi267337:~# curl -sS http://localhost:8081/server-status | grep -E ‘[0-9]\srequests’
curl: (28) Failed to connect to localhost port 8081 after 129610 ms: Connection timed out

8 
systemctl status apache2 --no-pager -l
systemctl restart apache2
systemctl status apache2 --no-pager -l
curl -sSm10 http://localhost:8081/server-status | grep -E '[0-9]\srequests'
9

yeah i tried this from one post here already. the problem with this command is that, it temporary solves the issue and then stops working after some hours or minutes. But let me try again. i will update you.

thank you.

10

I only want to view the outputs.

Regarding curl -sSm10 http://localhost:8081/server-status | grep -E '[0-9]\srequests' do it several times till you see the connection error, I’m interested in view how the requests increase during the first minutes.

11 
root@vmi267337:\~# systemctl status apache2 --no-pager -l
● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2025-11-13 05:09:32 CET; 13h ago
Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/
Process: 1272129 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/apachectl start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 1272132 (apache2)
Tasks: 164 (limit: 9457)
Memory: 88.3M
CPU: 41.126s
CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
├─1272132 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
├─1272133 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
├─1272134 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
├─1272135 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
├─1288779 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
├─1293204 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
├─1296229 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
└─1298777 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Nov 13 05:09:32 vmi267337.contaboserver.net systemd\[1\]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server…
Nov 13 05:09:32 vmi267337.contaboserver.net systemd\[1\]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.

root@vmi267337:\~# systemctl restart apache2

root@vmi267337:\~# systemctl status apache2 --no-pager -l
● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2025-11-13 18:47:07 CET; 11ms ago
Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/
Process: 1435256 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/apachectl start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 1435260 (apache2)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 9457)
Memory: 10.2M
CPU: 642ms
CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
└─1435260 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Nov 13 18:47:06 vmi267337.contaboserver.net systemd\[1\]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server…
Nov 13 18:47:07 vmi267337.contaboserver.net systemd\[1\]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.

root@vmi267337:\~# curl -sSm10 http://localhost:8081/server-status | grep -E ‘\[0-9\]\\srequests’

<dt>.507 requests/sec - 23.0 kB/second - 45.3 kB/request - 491.752 ms/request</dt>
<dt>27 requests currently being processed, 48 idle workers</dt>
root@vmi267337:~#
12

Run the curl command three more times, once every minute or so and show the output.

13 
root@vmi267337:~# curl -sS http://localhost:8081/server-status | grep -E '[0-9]\srequests'
<dt>.383 requests/sec - 16.8 kB/second - 43.9 kB/request - 1572.96 ms/request</dt>
<dt>16 requests currently being processed, 34 idle workers</dt>

root@vmi267337:~# curl -sS http://localhost:8081/server-status | grep -E '[0-9]\srequests'
<dt>.393 requests/sec - 17.8 kB/second - 45.3 kB/request - 1470.57 ms/request</dt>
<dt>17 requests currently being processed, 33 idle workers</dt>

root@vmi267337:~# curl -sS http://localhost:8081/server-status | grep -E '[0-9]\srequests'
<dt>.369 requests/sec - 17.7 kB/second - 47.9 kB/request - 1544.53 ms/request</dt>
<dt>17 requests currently being processed, 33 idle workers</dt>

root@vmi267337:~# curl -sS http://localhost:8081/server-status | grep -E '[0-9]\srequests'
<dt>.344 requests/sec - 17.8 kB/second - 51.7 kB/request - 1466.01 ms/request</dt>
<dt>20 requests currently being processed, 30 idle workers</dt>
14

I don’t see a problem there, you have enough workers.

Are you still having issues?

15

yes. same error 500