troubleshoot-php-fpm

Diagnose PHP-FPM incidents by mapping symptoms to failure archetypes with Netdata MCP metrics.

1|Updated Apr 17, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/netdata/skills --skill troubleshoot-php-fpm
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: troubleshoot-php-fpm
Source: https://github.com/netdata/skills/tree/main/skills/troubleshoot-php-fpm
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/netdata/skills --skill troubleshoot-php-fpm

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill includes references (resource) components.

What problem does it solve?

Troubleshoots PHP-FPM performance and availability incidents by pinpointing likely failure archetypes such as worker exhaustion, slow request cascades, memory leak spirals, socket backlog overflow, and session lock serialization.

Core Features & Use Cases

  • Structured diagnostic tree: Guides an agent through a domain-based triage sequence aligned to the Netdata operator playbook (Availability & Liveness, Saturation & Capacity, Performance & Latency, Resource Utilization, Process Lifecycle, Connectivity).
  • MCP-driven service verification: Uses MCP queries to confirm service liveness and pull the key PHP-FPM chart contexts needed to validate hypotheses and track anomalies over time.
  • Targeted remediation validation: Re-runs the same MCP verification queries after applying remediation to ensure signals return to expected ranges, reducing false fixes and misdiagnoses.
  • Use Case: An on-call engineer sees increased 502/504 errors and latency for a PHP-FPM-backed app and needs a fast, repeatable way to decide whether the root cause is capacity saturation, slow downstream dependencies, memory growth, or session contention.

Quick Start

Tell the AI: "Diagnose and remediate my PHP-FPM incident using Netdata via MCP, validate the root cause with the load-bearing phpfpm.* contexts, and propose the smallest fix that moves the signals back to normal."

Frequently Asked Questions about troubleshoot-php-fpm

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I troubleshoot PHP-FPM worker exhaustion during incident triage?

To troubleshoot PHP-FPM worker exhaustion, map symptoms to failure archetypes and validate capacity saturation using Netdata phpfpm.* metrics via MCP queries. This confirms whether worker pools are depleted during incident triage.

What causes 502 and 504 errors when debugging PHP-FPM performance?

Debugging 502 and 504 errors involves diagnosing PHP-FPM anomalies like socket backlog overflow, slow request cascades, or memory leak spirals. Netdata metrics correlate these latency and availability issues to their root cause domains.

How do I validate PHP-FPM remediation after applying a fix?

Validate PHP-FPM remediation by re-running MCP verification queries for phpfpm.* contexts after applying fixes. This re-querying confirms that performance and availability signals have returned to their expected baseline ranges.

Can I diagnose PHP-FPM session lock serialization using observability metrics?

Yes, diagnosing PHP-FPM session lock serialization is possible by mapping contention symptoms to performance archetypes and validating them with Netdata observability metrics. MCP queries detect latency anomalies caused by serialized session locks.

Does this incident triage method require Netdata MCP for slow request cascade diagnosis?

Yes, diagnosing slow request cascades requires running Netdata MCP discovery and verification queries. These queries pull the load-bearing phpfpm.* contexts needed to correlate downstream latency anomalies with PHP-FPM saturation.