# PHP log error in virtualmin "Server reached pm.max\_children setting (16)" **URL:** \ **Category:** Virtualmin\ **Created:** [June 12, 2023, 12:10am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/php-log-error-in-virtualmin-server-reached-pm-max-children-setting-16/121129 "2023-06-12T00:10:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![anthonyinit2012](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/anthonyinit2012/32/674_2.png) [@anthonyinit2012](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/anthonyinit2012)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2023, 12:10am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/php-log-error-in-virtualmin-server-reached-pm-max-children-setting-16/121129/1 "2023-06-12T00:10:51Z")
| SYSTEM INFORMATION | | | --- | --- | | OS type and version | Debian Linux 11 | | Webmin version | 2.021 | | Virtualmin version | 7.7 | | Related packages | SUGGESTED | Hello all, Why do I keep getting php errors in my log file? ![Screen Shot 2023-06-12 at 3.55.32 AM](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/2X/7/73f4648c4b62cebd6f681f693dbaae03f7159f7c.png) In my Server Configuration + PHP Option ![Screen Shot 2023-06-12 at 4.02.12 AM](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/2X/e/e223067bccc4940e599dc0703dd900aaecea9143.png) ![Screen Shot 2023-06-12 at 4.08.23 AM](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/2X/1/185b9fe9c183431d20b7a889a8bf73ad5444476d.png) Any advice I can get would be great. ---
**Author:** ![calport](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/calport/32/44_2.png) [@calport](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/calport)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2023, 2:59am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/php-log-error-in-virtualmin-server-reached-pm-max-children-setting-16/121129/2 "2023-06-12T02:59:46Z")
Perhaps you should do nothing except change the PHP script run time from unlimited to a sensible default. If there is a PHP script that is running for hours and days - and thereby hogging resources - then limiting the run time for such is script is all you need to do to solve the problem. Your web server stops serving pages when it reaches a certain threshold of traffic. It is failing in the most graceful way possible. The worse alternatives to this sort of failure is that the web server slows down to an unacceptable level of performance or the entire server hangs. In the present case all these bad things have been prevented from occuring due to a limit on the number of child processes. It would not be a good idea for you to increase the number of child processes / sub processes just to get rid of the error, because by doing so you might cause the web server to fail in a more ungraceful manner. In summary, if you are unable to allocate more CPU and RAM to the server then you will have to identify the virtual server which is hogging resources and do something about it. ---
**Author:** ![anthonyinit2012](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/anthonyinit2012/32/674_2.png) [@anthonyinit2012](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/anthonyinit2012)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2023, 3:34am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/php-log-error-in-virtualmin-server-reached-pm-max-children-setting-16/121129/3 "2023-06-12T03:34:54Z")
@calport Thank you for your advice. I got **6 cores and 16GB RAM** on my server. Let me try to set a decent time for **PHP script run time** and see how it will help me. ---
**Author:** ![stefan1959](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@stefan1959](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/stefan1959)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2023, 5:49am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/php-log-error-in-virtualmin-server-reached-pm-max-children-setting-16/121129/4 "2023-06-12T05:49:34Z")
I’ve been running these setting with good results, halved the ram usage, this is in the template. This only effect each virtual server only untill you disable and enable FPM, so you can do a staged change. ![image](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/2X/f/f3021e9b63e070be368d940239ce23b8739d716a.png) ---
**Author:** ![anthonyinit2012](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/anthonyinit2012/32/674_2.png) [@anthonyinit2012](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/anthonyinit2012)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2023, 6:16am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/php-log-error-in-virtualmin-server-reached-pm-max-children-setting-16/121129/5 "2023-06-12T06:16:54Z")
@stefan1959 Thanks, I have a look at those settings. ---
**Author:** ![anthonyinit2012](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/anthonyinit2012/32/674_2.png) [@anthonyinit2012](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/anthonyinit2012)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 3:51pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/php-log-error-in-virtualmin-server-reached-pm-max-children-setting-16/121129/6 "2023-06-13T15:51:38Z")
Hello, in **/etc/php/7.4/fpm/pool.d** There are two files one is **www.conf** and the other one is **16778132974398.conf** **www.conf** This is what it looks like ![Screen Shot 2023-06-13 at 7.39.21 PM](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/2X/b/bf75f1eb8246313c81e78f8cae2d44a90bcadd63.png) **16778132974398.conf** ![Screen Shot 2023-06-13 at 7.47.48 PM](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/2X/9/9ebdf756540cba963e30b6a30e08f62f687ccb9c.png) Really confused with these two files I’m not sure what it does. ---
**Author:** ![calport](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/calport/32/44_2.png) [@calport](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/calport)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 4:52pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/php-log-error-in-virtualmin-server-reached-pm-max-children-setting-16/121129/7 "2023-06-13T16:52:08Z")
If your orginal question has been answered / issue resolved then mark the answer as such. If you have a different question, please start a new topic. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![anthonyinit2012](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/anthonyinit2012/32/674_2.png) [@anthonyinit2012](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/anthonyinit2012)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 5:05pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/php-log-error-in-virtualmin-server-reached-pm-max-children-setting-16/121129/8 "2023-06-13T17:05:18Z")
Not really, I’m still getting the errors and that is the reason why i post these settings. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/2X/c/cd96d761e326db4b2bef94886a639109bd7a8e76.svg) [@system](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2023, 5:06pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/php-log-error-in-virtualmin-server-reached-pm-max-children-setting-16/121129/9 "2023-08-12T17:06:16Z")
Closed on August 12, 2023, 5:06pm UTC This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.