Hi,

i'd like to ask your help on a longstanding issue with php/mysql connections.

Every time i execute a "SHOW PROCESSLIST" command it shows me about 400 idle (Status: Sleep) connections to the database Server emerging from our 5 Webservers.

That never was much of a problem (and i didn't find a quick solution) until recently traffic numbers increased and since then MySql reports the "to many connections" Problems repeatedly, even so 350+ of those connections are in "sleep" state. Also a server can't get a mysql connection even if there are sleeping connection to that same server.

All those connections vanish when a apache server is restated.

The PHP Code used to create the Database connections uses the normal "mysql" Module, the "mysqli" Module, PEAR::DB and Zend Framework Db Adapter. (Different projects). NONE of the projects uses persistent connections.

Raising the connection-limit is possible but doesn't seem like a good solution since it's 450 now and there are only 20-100 "real" connections at a time anyways.

My question:

Why are there so many connections in sleep state and how can i prevent that.

Thank you for your time, if theres anything unclear or missing please let me know