# 100% CPU usage of Chef-server beam.smp

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/100-cpu-usage-of-chef-server-beam-smp/4369>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [August 28, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/100-cpu-usage-of-chef-server-beam-smp/4369 "2013-08-28T14:54:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Astlock](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/astlock/32/441_2.png) [@Astlock](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Astlock)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/100-cpu-usage-of-chef-server-beam-smp/4369/1 "2013-08-28T14:54:11Z")

</div>

Hi. Today I encountered with broken bootstrap process on my Chef at AWS. The  
simple bootstrap command stuck and then I got these errors.

[http://pastebin.com/qUrJnz6h](http://pastebin.com/qUrJnz6h)

The command was:

knife ec2 server create -N [oss22.host.com](http://oss22.host.com) -x root -E prod -i  
~/.ssh/key-08-2013.pem -Z us-east-1b -g default -f m1.small -S key-08-2013 -r  
"role[base\_server],recipe[nexus],recipe[etc\_hosts]"

The main point is in the server the process beam.smp began to consume 100% CPU.

It’s reproducible issue. Some info from this affected erlang process, I hope  
will be helpful:

[http://pastebin.com/N7g16195](http://pastebin.com/N7g16195)

The chef server version=11.0.2;erchef=1.2.6, chef-client 11.4.4.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cassiano\_Leal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/cassiano_leal/32/86_2.png) [@Cassiano\_Leal](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Cassiano_Leal)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/100-cpu-usage-of-chef-server-beam-smp/4369/2 "2013-08-28T15:42:57Z")

</div>

Usually when I see this issue it’s because Chef cannot resolve all cookbook dependencies.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found an easy and practical way to check that apart from actually looking down the cookbook dependency tree until I find the culprit.

To get the chef server back to normal CPU usage, restart it. If you try to run the chef client without solving the issue, the CPU will once again be consumed by beam.smp.

Good luck!

On August 28, 2013 at 11:54:32, [nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com) ([nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com)) wrote:

Hi. Today I encountered with broken bootstrap process on my Chef at AWS. The  
simple bootstrap command stuck and then I got these errors.

[http://pastebin.com/qUrJnz6h](http://pastebin.com/qUrJnz6h)

The command was:

knife ec2 server create -N [oss22.host.com](http://oss22.host.com) -x root -E prod -i  
~/.ssh/key-08-2013.pem -Z us-east-1b -g default -f m1.small -S key-08-2013 -r  
"role[base\_server],recipe[nexus],recipe[etc\_hosts]"

The main point is in the server the process beam.smp began to consume 100% CPU.

It’s reproducible issue. Some info from this affected erlang process, I hope  
will be helpful:

[http://pastebin.com/N7g16195](http://pastebin.com/N7g16195)

## The chef server version=11.0.2;erchef=1.2.6, chef-client 11.4.4.

Cassiano Leal  
[http://cassianoleal.com](http://cassianoleal.com)  
[http://twitter.com/cassianoleal](http://twitter.com/cassianoleal)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Aaron\_Binford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@Aaron\_Binford](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Aaron_Binford)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/100-cpu-usage-of-chef-server-beam-smp/4369/3 "2013-08-28T15:56:11Z")

</div>

Had this happen to me a few weeks ago. Ended up going nuclear, removing all of my cookbooks and then re-uploading them. In any event, it was the push I needed to start using berkshelf.

From the reading I did, it seems that if you pin an object to a specific version of a cookbook an then that cookbook goes missing or is removed in favor of a newer one, chaos ensues. I’m sure it had to do with the dramatic jump in the version on the osx community cookbook, but I didn’t have the time to burn tracking it down.

From: Cassiano Leal \<[cassianoleal@gmail.com](mailto:cassianoleal@gmail.com)[mailto:cassianoleal@gmail.com](mailto:cassianoleal@gmail.com)\>  
Reply-To: "chef@lists.opscode.com[mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)" \<[chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)[mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)\>  
Date: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 10:42 AM  
To: "chef@lists.opscode.com[mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)" \<[chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)[mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)\>, "nowarry@gmail.com[mailto:nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com)" \<[nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com)[mailto:nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com)\>  
Subject: [chef] Re: 100% CPU usage of Chef-server beam.smp

Usually when I see this issue it’s because Chef cannot resolve all cookbook dependencies.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found an easy and practical way to check that apart from actually looking down the cookbook dependency tree until I find the culprit.

To get the chef server back to normal CPU usage, restart it. If you try to run the chef client without solving the issue, the CPU will once again be consumed by beam.smp.

Good luck!

On August 28, 2013 at 11:54:32, [nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com)[mailto:nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com) ([nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com)[mailto:nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com)) wrote:

Hi. Today I encountered with broken bootstrap process on my Chef at AWS. The  
simple bootstrap command stuck and then I got these errors.

[http://pastebin.com/qUrJnz6h](http://pastebin.com/qUrJnz6h)

The command was:

knife ec2 server create -N [oss22.host.com](http://oss22.host.com) -x root -E prod -i  
~/.ssh/key-08-2013.pem -Z us-east-1b -g default -f m1.small -S key-08-2013 -r  
"role[base\_server],recipe[nexus],recipe[etc\_hosts]"

The main point is in the server the process beam.smp began to consume 100% CPU.

It’s reproducible issue. Some info from this affected erlang process, I hope  
will be helpful:

[http://pastebin.com/N7g16195](http://pastebin.com/N7g16195)

## The chef server version=11.0.2;erchef=1.2.6, chef-client 11.4.4.

Cassiano Leal  
[http://cassianoleal.com](http://cassianoleal.com)  
[http://twitter.com/cassianoleal](http://twitter.com/cassianoleal)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Astlock](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/astlock/32/441_2.png) [@Astlock](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Astlock)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 5:13pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/100-cpu-usage-of-chef-server-beam-smp/4369/4 "2013-08-31T17:13:25Z")

</div>

Thanks guys. I deleted all cookbooks as suggested by Aaron and re-uploaded  
again. The problem is gone.

On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 6:56 PM, Aaron Binford [abinford@cleversafe.com](mailto:abinford@cleversafe.com)wrote:

> Had this happen to me a few weeks ago. Ended up going nuclear, removing  
> all of my cookbooks and then re-uploading them. In any event, it was the  
> push I needed to start using berkshelf.
> 
> From the reading I did, it seems that if you pin an object to a specific  
> version of a cookbook an then that cookbook goes missing or is removed in  
> favor of a newer one, chaos ensues. I'm sure it had to do with the dramatic  
> jump in the version on the osx community cookbook, but I didn't have the  
> time to burn tracking it down.
> 
> From: Cassiano Leal [cassianoleal@gmail.com](mailto:cassianoleal@gmail.com)  
> Reply-To: "[chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)" [chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)  
> Date: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 10:42 AM  
> To: "[chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)" [chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com), "[nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com)"  
> [nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com)  
> Subject: [chef] Re: 100% CPU usage of Chef-server beam.smp
> 
> Usually when I see this issue it’s because Chef cannot resolve all  
> cookbook dependencies.
> 
> Unfortunately, I haven’t found an easy and practical way to check that  
> apart from actually looking down the cookbook dependency tree until I find  
> the culprit.
> 
> To get the chef server back to normal CPU usage, restart it. If you try to  
> run the chef client without solving the issue, the CPU will once again be  
> consumed by beam.smp.
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> On August 28, 2013 at 11:54:32, [nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com) ([nowarry@gmail.com](mailto:nowarry@gmail.com))  
> wrote:
> 
> Hi. Today I encountered with broken bootstrap process on my Chef at AWS.  
> The  
> simple bootstrap command stuck and then I got these errors.
> 
> [chef 100% beam.smp - Pastebin.com](http://pastebin.com/qUrJnz6h)
> 
> The command was:
> 
> knife ec2 server create -N [oss22.host.com](http://oss22.host.com) -x root -E prod -i  
> ~/.ssh/key-08-2013.pem -Z us-east-1b -g default -f m1.small -S key-08-2013  
> -r  
> "role[base\_server],recipe[nexus],recipe[etc\_hosts]"
> 
> The main point is in the server the process beam.smp began to consume 100%  
> CPU.
> 
> It's reproducible issue. Some info from this affected erlang process, I  
> hope  
> will be helpful:
> 
> [chef 100% beam.smp\_2 - Pastebin.com](http://pastebin.com/N7g16195)
> 
> The chef server version=11.0.2;erchef=1.2.6, chef-client 11.4.4.
> 
> --  
> Cassiano Leal  
> [http://cassianoleal.com](http://cassianoleal.com)  
> [http://twitter.com/cassianoleal](http://twitter.com/cassianoleal)