# General error: 2006 MySQL server has gone away

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/general-error-2006-mysql-server-has-gone-away/1806>\
**Category:** Other MySQL® Questions\
**Created:** [April 29, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/general-error-2006-mysql-server-has-gone-away/1806 "2012-04-29T21:16:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fernandomm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e0b2c6/32.png) [@fernandomm](https://forums.percona.com/u/fernandomm)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/general-error-2006-mysql-server-has-gone-away/1806/1 "2012-04-29T21:16:58Z")

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Hi,

We have two servers, one for web and another for percona.

From time to time we get “General error: 2006 MySQL server has gone away”. It happens randomly.

Percona server load is very low and has a high max-connection setting.

# w 04:35:31 up 161 days, 7:42, 1 user, load average: 0,05, 0,07, 0,05

Lots of free RAM also

# free -m total used free shared buffers cachedMem: 96811 84736 12075 0 1193 22186-/+ buffers/cache: 61357 35454Swap: 2047 0 2047

Also, Percona is never restarted. It has been up for months.

My question is: what might be causing these issues? Is it possible to force Percona do log the reason why this problem happens?

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**Author:** ![gmouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@gmouse](https://forums.percona.com/u/gmouse)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/general-error-2006-mysql-server-has-gone-away/1806/2 "2012-05-01T05:28:18Z")

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Would it be possible to use a network sniffer like tcpdump with the frequency it occurs?