Just a little bit ago I saw a process pop up on htop that started using 100% of 1 core and 200MB of memory for about 5 minutes. The process was /usr/sbin/update-apt-xapian-index. This happened on a brand new node booted for the first time less than 8 hours ago with only apache, mysql, and php installed.

I Googled the issue but the articles I read at least didn't really solve the issue. Some have said uninstall it, but it seems to me slightly important to the apt-cache functionality. I'm wondering if anyone can confirm that it is either ok to remove, or has another solution to this issue.

Thanks.

I'd leave it. It indexes packages so you can search them quicker. It shouldn't take very long, possibly the first time it runs it could take a bit longer, wait until the box has been running a few days and see if it still chews up cpu/ram. (IMHO I wouldn't say 5 minutes is a problem)

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I don't really search packages, I know exactly what I am going to install when I go to do it. It may be fine for now but definitely not once I have a site and several real time game servers running on the box. From what I read about it, they said this issue was patched in 2009 but clearly it isn't so it doesn't seem like something that will show up in the next release of it, so if I can remove it without breaking anything I will probably end up doing that.

You can remove it with

aptitude remove apt-xapian-index

nothing in the core system depends on it so you should be fine (I just tested removing it and it didn't break anything)

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How to ask for help
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2. Post any errors
3. Post relevant logs.
4. Don't hide details i.e. your domain, it just makes things harder
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