[Wordpress] Unexpected Bitnami Stack Shutdown and Restart Twice Daily

[edumats]

Platform

AWS

bndiagnostic ID know more about bndiagnostic ID

0188d512-810e-0d17-59bd-43627aee81aa

bndiagnostic output

[Resources]Your instance has little available RAM memory.

total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 1947 1325 136 144 485 293 Swap: 1535 209 1326

You could try to increase your instance's memory. Please check your cloud provider's documentation for more information.Press [Enter] to continue:

[Connectivity]Server ports 22, 80 and/or 443 are not publicly accessible. Please check the following guide to open server ports for remote access:

https://docs.bitnami.com/general/faq/administration/use-firewall/

[Wordpress]Some files don't have the expected permissions Please check the following guide:

https://docs.bitnami.com/general/apps/wordpress/administration/understand-file-permissions/

[Apache]Found recent error or warning messages in the Apache error log.

 [Thu Oct 16 18:12:54.966221 2025] [access_compat:error] [pid 2538274:tid 140540095973120] [client **ip_address**:11473] AH01797: client denied by server configuration: /opt/bitnami/wordpress/xmlrpc.php, referer: http://example.com 
Press [Enter] to continue: 
[Thu Oct 16 18:17:31.901366 2025] [access_compat:error] [pid 2541801:tid 140540171507456] [client **ip_address**:12283] AH01797: client denied by server configuration: /opt/bitnami/wordpress/xmlrpc.php, referer: http://example.com 
[Thu Oct 16 18:31:05.352319 2025] [access_compat:error] [pid 2541801:tid 140540163114752] [client **ip_address**:9845] AH01797: client denied by server configuration: /opt/bitnami/wordpress/xmlrpc.php, referer: http://example.com

bndiagnostic was not useful. Could you please tell us why?

Its suggestions are not related to my issue

Describe your issue as much as you can

Hello Bitnami Support,

I am using AWS Lightsail with a Bitnami Wordpress image and I am experiencing a recurring issue where my Bitnami stack (Apache, PHP, MariaDB) stops and restarts automatically twice a day, at approximately 00:00 and 12:00 (server time). The issue happens within these hours, but the exact times varies between each day. Sometimes it happens 00:29 or at 01:09, but always in this 1 hour window. This causes temporary downtime for my application.

After investigating, here’s what I have found so far:

From journalctl logs around the downtime:

Sep 08 00:17:44 ip-172-26-3-84 systemd[1]: Stopping LSB: bitnami init script...
Sep 08 00:17:44 ip-172-26-3-84 bitnami[1925086]: 2025-09-08T00:17:44.224Z - info: Saving configuration info to disk
Sep 08 00:17:44 ip-172-26-3-84 bitnami[1925086]: 2025-09-08T00:17:44.827Z - info: Stop monitoring services from gonit
Sep 08 00:17:44 ip-172-26-3-84 bitnami[1925086]: 2025-09-08T00:17:44.840Z - info: Performing service stop operation for php
Sep 08 00:17:46 ip-172-26-3-84 bitnami[1925086]: php 00:17:46.41 INFO  ==> php-fpm stopped
Sep 08 00:17:46 ip-172-26-3-84 bitnami[1925086]: 2025-09-08T00:17:46.420Z - info: Performing service stop operation for mariadb
Sep 08 00:17:47 ip-172-26-3-84 bitnami[1925086]: mariadb 00:17:47.99 INFO  ==> mariadb stopped
Sep 08 00:17:47 ip-172-26-3-84 bitnami[1925086]: 2025-09-08T00:17:47.993Z - info: Performing service stop operation for apache
Sep 08 00:17:49 ip-172-26-3-84 bitnami[1925086]: apache 00:17:49.62 INFO  ==> apache stopped
Sep 08 00:17:49 ip-172-26-3-84 systemd[1]: bitnami.service: Succeeded.
Sep 08 00:19:01 ip-172-26-3-84 systemd[1]: Starting LSB: bitnami init script...

from gonit.log from another downtime event:

time="2025-08-06T00:02:33Z" level=info msg="Performing checks"
time="2025-08-06T00:02:33Z" level=info msg="Performing process check mariadb"
time="2025-08-06T00:02:33Z" level=info msg="Performing process check php-fpm"
time="2025-08-06T00:02:33Z" level=info msg="Performing process check apache"
...
(no other service logs for 8 minutes)
...
time="2025-08-06T00:10:10Z" level=info msg=Reloading
time="2025-08-06T00:10:10Z" level=info msg="Configuration validates, loading it...."
time="2025-08-06T00:10:33Z" level=info msg="Performing checks"

There are no scheduled cron jobs that could be restarting these services.

From what I understood, this is a controlled shutdown that is being triggered at specific times, but I could not pinpoint what is causing these shutdowns. I also have the impression that gonit is restarting these services once they are shut down.

Could you recommend a a way to prevent these automatic shutdowns?

Thank you for your time and assistance. Please let me know if you’d like me to share any specific log files.

Best regards,

[jotamartos]

I suggest you take a look at the Apache's logs to check if there is any bot/attacker accessing your site with malicious intentions during those time slots

https://docs.bitnami.com/general/apps/wordpress/troubleshooting/deny-connections-bots-apache/

I also suggest you take a look at similar tickets here.

[github-actions[bot]]

This Issue has been automatically marked as "stale" because it has not had recent activity (for 15 days). It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thanks for the feedback.

[github-actions[bot]]

Due to the lack of activity in the last 5 days since it was marked as "stale", we proceed to close this Issue. Do not hesitate to reopen it later if necessary.