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System load is too high to allow login or system maintenance

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Running 18.04 in Azure
Within the last three months the server has been experiencing the following issues :
The only way currently to log into the box is via a serial connection.
Any attempt to log in via ssh hangs and it also causes the system load (as reported by uptime or top) to start climbing.
Any systemctl command returns the following -
Failed to get properties: Connection timed out
This means at the moment it is impossible to use apt update/upgrade to patch linux as apt cannot stop or start services.
Any ps command hangs indefinitely and requires a reboot of the box to get the serial connection back.
Any attempt to log in via ssh will cause the system load to start climbing and although I can enter the password it will hang after that. We currently have provisioned the server with 4 vcpus and 16 Gb of RAM. It is running a Drupal 7 site with mysql, but even if the services are disabled by removing the symbolic links to the service files the system load is still >3.
Running top does not show anything untoward except the system load and zombie processes building up. Screen snip of top
Any ideas most welcome.

DTCBC avatar
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We've done a lot of investigation and found that using strace ps aux that the ps command hangs when reaching /proc/tty/drivers Does this impliy that the terminal some drivers are corrupt? Can this be fixed?
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