SQL Mem Crashes + CPanel Memory Usage

Hi all, we're having serious memory problems we can't explain.

We're getting periodic SQL and php errors claiming we've ran out of memory, this crashes the server and it remains unstable until a full reboot. Here's the thing tho, we are a smaller board and sometimes only have 6-10 users online at the time?

The resting memory usage on CPanel (with no one on the site) is 70% which a) seems high, and b) whenever we look it seems to seldom go over 74% with 30-40 users online, however if we catch it right we'll see it spiking to 85% or so, when nothing as we can tell is going on on the site.

We're using a VPS 256. Can anyone suggest anywhere we could look to track down the problem? Our hosts have been of little help and have been unable to give us any idea of what are causing these memory spikes.

We've tried countless things, too many to explain, on the host's suggestion, disabling Spam Assassin, disabling a bunch of scheduled tasks, etc, etc, but none of these have had any noticable impact at all.

If you need any more information please let us know,

Thanks!

Chris (posting as wez)

CGEmpire.com

[lighti]

With a VPS is likely another user on the server is using way more ram then they should and cutting into your available ram. Perhaps the server was oversold to much and their is not much physical free ram left. Is this a Linux OS? Because with Linux it loves to eat ram, and store it. It will appear to be "Gone" but it is really cached for faster loading of items. Linux loves to use the physical ram and the virtual ram, together, so just because it says its eating 70% does not mean its all active.

My guess is (which is why I dislike VPS over priced shared accounts) but thats my opinion.. That the machine maybe oversold, and not alot of memory free, or cPanel may not of been installed properly and something is causing an error

[wezoo]

Hmm interesting, thanks for the info lighti! I'll look into this!