Zombie processes

[sammy ominsky]

Hi all,

I have one server that is constantly getting overrun by zombies!  Nagios alerts me that 

** NAGIOS ALERT ** PROBLEM with Zombie Processes on Hardware *********** (***.***.***.***).  Service is CRITICAL as of Sun Jan 3 15:17:10 UTC 2010.  The additional information available is: PROCS CRITICAL: 23 processes with STATE = Z

ps shows me it's mostly one process this time, other times it's others

19279 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19283 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19293 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19295 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19648 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19767 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19778 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19779 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19782 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19786 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19851 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19857 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19859 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19861 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19938 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19940 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
19944 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
20191 ?        Z      0:00 [callingcard.php] <defunct>
20195 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
20291 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
20302 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
20304 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
20315 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
20433 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>
20444 ?        Z      0:00 [playrecording.p] <defunct>

Thoughts?  Thanks!

--sambo