Processes in a Zombie (Z) or Defunct State

defunct processes, also called zombie processes. It may be an application errors as well.

                                            vv
#==[ Checking Health of Processes ]=================#
# egrep " D| Z" /var/log/nts_x64-7_090210_1117/psout.vNO31896
root       707 23884  0.0  0.0      0     0 Z    00:00:00 [ncs-resourced.p]<defunct>
root      3816  2949  0.0  0.0   6012   656 D    00:02:52 hald-addon-storage
root     23830     1  0.0  0.0      0     0 D    00:01:03 [MPK Thread]
root     23831     1  0.0  0.0      0     0 D    00:00:09 [MPK Thread]
root     23839     1  0.0  0.0      0     0 D    00:00:07 [MPK Thread]
root     23844     1  0.0  0.0      0     0 D    00:00:00 [MPK Thread]
root     23884     1  0.0  0.1  32348  4240 D    00:00:00 /usr/bin/python /opt/novell/ncs/bin/ncs-resourced.py /etc/opt/novell/ncs
                                            ^^

Defunct ("zombie") processes are child processes who's  parent process has terminated without terminating the child process(es). See ps(1). If a parent process is found to often teminate itself without first terminating it's child process(es), it could be an indication of an application bug, configuration or other issue with the application. Make sure to account for the defunct processes. Check the application's configuration, restart the server, and observe the application's behavior.

If you see several ncs-resourced.p processes listed as defunct, this may be normal (refer to KB 7002868 ncs-resourced.p in a defunct or zombie state).