A mod_cluster worker has -1 load factor although JBoss is sending postive load in its STATUS MCMPs

Issue

• We restart httpd and start seeing 503s at random for requests to some nodes.
• The request looks to be failing because the balancer's workers have -1 load. We checked the STATUS requests and JBoss is sending positive load through MCMP and the STATUS requests succeed with a 200.
• We note that pings are failing to some other destination not served by mod_cluster in the midst of the STATUS handling:

[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [debug] mod_manager.c(1442): manager_trans STATUS (/)
[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [debug] mod_manager.c(1957): manager_handler STATUS (/) processing: "JVMRoute=node1&Load=91"
[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [debug] proxy_util.c(2011): proxy: http: has acquired connection for (www.nonmodclustersite.com)
[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [debug] proxy_util.c(2067): proxy: connecting http://www.nonmodclustersite.com:80/ to www.nonmodclustersite.com:80
[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [debug] proxy_util.c(2193): proxy: connected http://www.nonmodclustersite.com:80/ to www.nonmodclustersite.com:80
[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [debug] proxy_util.c(2444): proxy: http: fam 2 socket created to connect to www.nonmodclustersite.com
[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [error] (111)Connection refused: proxy: http: attempt to connect to 127.0.0.1:80 (www.nonmodclustersite.com) failed
[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [error] ap_proxy_connect_backend disabling worker for (www.nonmodclustersite.com
[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [debug] mod_proxy_cluster.c(1422): proxy_cluster_try_pingpong: can't connect to backend
[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [debug] proxy_util.c(2029): proxy: http: has released connection for (www.nonmodclustersite.com)
[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [debug] mod_proxy_cluster.c(1496): proxy_cluster_isup: pingpong failed
[Thu Aug 08 03:03:33 2013] [debug] mod_manager.c(1998): manager_handler STATUS  OK

• The ping appears to be failing to some other proxy destination we have configured:

ProxyPass /app balancer://mycluster/app stickysessions=JSESSIONID|jsessionid nofailover=On
ProxyPass /other http://www.nonmodclustersite.com/other