currently i am running a linode 360 with ubuntu 9.1 apache/mysql/php and when site gets moderatly busy, it locks up and needs a reboot (site is http://207.192.74.90 )
looking at the graphs in control panel im getting io spikes of 9K when the site crashes, im thinking this is a memory issue so have reduced setting in apache and mysql but it still happens

have looked in syslog, but nothing in there looks amiss either

im going to move the linode to the london center and will take the time to get the best of it, and may have to upgrade to a 540, hence asking for advice on setup

having a quick look around the forum it seems that lighthttpd is less of a resource hog than apache so can someone point me at somewhere than has a step-by-step guide to getting it running with php/mysql
im not too fused as to which distro im running

any advice welcomed

thanks

Personally I used http://nanotux.com/blog/the-ultimate-server/ - a pretty good tutorial

I run nginx with fcgi - works very well.

You can also use nginx as a front-end for apache and have it handle only the dynamic requests (and use nginx for serving the static data).

But the quickest way to fix your setup is to tune your apache configuration a bit and e.g. reduce the number of processes you allow.
Search the forums, there are a ton of threads discussing the various options.