Servermgrd Exception during idle processing: couldn't spawn task

Question

Hello,
we recieve every 2 seconds the following message in the system.log
Sep 15 11:17:13 xxxxx servermgrd[100]: Exception during idle processing: couldn't spawn task: path = /usr/bin/ftpcount, errno 24
bash-3.2# /usr/bin/ftpcount
Service class realusers - 0 users ( 50 maximum)
Service class anonusers - 0 users ( 50 maximum)
don't know why this error occurs, anybody out there who knows whats happend there?
thx+cheers./c

Answer 1

Hi,
We're running Server 10.5.4 on a G4 Xserve.
Typically, our "once a week" problem is a failure of the DirectoryService process. Occasionally, our bootpd.plist file will revert to defaults and we lose all our DHCP settings.
Today, I got to experience one part of your problem - the inability to access the server via the Server Admin GUI and the server admin web site (https://localhost:311). Typically, we have that problem when DirectoryService fails, since we can no longer authenticate as a user of those services.
This time, I was surprised to find that authentication wasn't the problem.
Although I don't have a real fix for you, I was able to get servermgrd running again by simply quitting it from Activity Monitor.app. Launchd just restarts the service for you automatically. You should be able to accomplish the same thing with +killall servermgrd+. At the very least, this could save you from having to reboot.
If you're a scripter, you could probably write one that automatically does the killall for you when servermgrd goes flakey.
Regards,
Lyle Millander