Unexpected System Load Increase When Using `cron` Jobs on Debian 11
After trying multiple solutions online, I still can't figure this out. I'm working on a project and hit a roadblock. I have a `cron` job set up on my Debian 11 server that runs a Python script every 5 minutes. The script performs some data processing and is designed to be lightweight. However, I've noticed that after a few hours of running, the system load average spikes significantly, often reaching 10 or higher. This seems to coincide with the execution of the `cron` job, leading me to believe there's an scenario with either my script or the way `cron` is executing it. Here’s the entry I have in my crontab: ```bash */5 * * * * /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/script.py >> /var/log/script.log 2>&1 ``` The script itself includes several calls to external APIs and processes the responses. I've logged the time taken for each API call and the processing steps, and they seem to execute fairly quickly when run directly from the command line: ```python import time import requests start_time = time.time() response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data') # Assume more processing here print("Execution time: ", time.time() - start_time) ``` The log output from `script.log` shows no errors, and the execution time is consistently under 2 seconds. Yet, when I monitor the system using `top`, I see multiple instances of `python3` running, which seems unusual. I’ve tried adding a lock file mechanism to prevent overlapping executions, but the scenario continues. Here’s the locking code I added: ```python import os import sys lock_file = '/tmp/script.lock' if os.path.isfile(lock_file): print('Script is already running.') sys.exit(1) with open(lock_file, 'w') as f: f.write(str(os.getpid())) ``` After implementing this lock file, the system load still increases over time. I’m not sure if the question lies within the script itself, the way `cron` handles job execution, or some system configuration that I might be overlooking. Any insights on how to diagnose and resolve this load scenario would be greatly appreciated! My development environment is Ubuntu. How would you solve this? Am I approaching this the right way? I'm coming from a different tech stack and learning Python. Any feedback is welcome!