Urgent: MailScanner apparently stopped processing...

[Julian Field]

At 08:27 09/05/2003, you wrote:
>On Fri, 9 May 2003, Julian Field wrote:
> > At 08:01 09/05/2003, you wrote:
> > >On Fri, 9 May 2003, Julian Field wrote:
> > >
> > > > At 19:25 08/05/2003, you wrote:
> > > > >I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this one - recently I had
> > > > >MailScanner which I've implemented on RedHat 8 w/Postfix just
> yesterday,
> > > > >abruptly stop processing mail.
> > > > >
> > > > >I only happened to notice as the only indication was that no mail was
> > > > >passing through to my internal mail/pop servers, etc.
> > > > >
> > > > >When I checked the maillog I found only entries from the postfix demon
> > > > >that receives incoming mail, nothing from MailScanner or the
> postfix demon
> > > > >that then delivers what MailScanner gives it. All processes
> including the
> > > > >MailScanner processes were running - in fact, MailScanner was using a
> > > > >majority of cpu time. I tried manually starting up MailScanner and
> found
> > > > >that this fact of "MailScanner starting" and "xxx messages found to be
> > > > >scanned" did show up in the maillog, however, no other change,
> mail did
> > > > >not start to flow.
> > > > >
> > > > >I finally restarted the server and then everything started to move.
> > > >
> > > > But was it scanning after you restarted?
> > > >
> > >
> > >Yes, it was scanning after I restarted, however it was using max of both
> > >CPUs in my system. After letting it run that way for awhile, I used
> > >check_mailscanner to find it's PIDs, then I killed it and restarted and
> > >then the CPU use was more normaly.
> > >
> > > > Have you use redhat-switchmail-nox to set which email system RedHat
> thinks
> > > > it is trying to run?
> > > >
> > >
> > >Yes, this is set on postfix
> > >
> > > > >So, based on this I have a few questions:
> > > > >
> > > > >1. Any ideas why this happened and how can I prevent it and also does
> > > > >anyone have any scripts out there that detect this kindof thing
> and then
> > > > >cleanly shut down mailscanner and restart it?
> > > > >
> > > > >2. I realized I don't even know how to cleanly shut down MailScanner
> > > > >manually. This may seem a stupid question but if someone could
> answer it
> > > > >that would be great.
> > > >
> > > > service MailScanner stop
> > > >
> > > > You can do "service MailScanner" to get a list of the command
> options you
> > > > can give it.
> > > > Does "service MailScanner start" work cleanly, or does it output any
> > > errors?
> > > >
> > >
> > >I get: bash: service: command not found
> >
> > In which case you are using "su" and not "su -". Always use "su -" as it
> > sets up the root environment properly. All sorts of strange things can
> > happen when you just use "su".
> >
>
>Ah, thanks for the tip - when I do su - I get: MailScanner: unrecognized
>service

After you installed the RPMs you should have got this sorted already.
However, doing
         chkconfig MailScanner add
will add it as a service, so you can then start and stop it. You will need
to set your MTA by editing /etc/sysconfig/MailScanner and by running
"redhat-switchmail-nox".



> > >This may be because when I first installed MailScanner, it would hang on
> > >startup - I had to boot in single user mode, & rename the MailScanner init
> > >script in init.d - additionally my incoming postfix was not starting
> > >automatically either, so I added the postfix.in startup command and
> > >check_mailscanner to rc.local. I think what was happening before that is
> > >that MailScanner was trying to start before both postfixes were starting.
> > >
> > > > >4. I have an error message repeatedly showing up in the maillog that I
> > > > >have been unable to discover the cause of. It is:
> > > > >smtp MailScanner[xxxx]: Batch: Found invalid queue file for
> message xxxxxx
> > > >
> > > > For some reason it thinks one of your incoming queue files is
> corrupt. It
> > > > needs to be able to find the sender and recipient addresses, and
> the last
> > > > hop IP address, in the file it lifts from the queue.
> > > >
> > > > Can you send me one of the files from
> /var/spool/postfix.in/deferred that
> > > > exhibits this problem.
> > > > Then I can improve the Postfix parser to stop it happening again.
> > > > --
> > > > Julian Field
> > > > www.MailScanner.info
> > > > MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support
> > > >
> > >
> > >On the invalid messasge, is it save to remove it out of the deferred
> > >directory? If it is the only thing in it's folder, is it also safe to
> > >remove the folder?
> >
> > Remove the message, but don't remove the folder.
> >
>
>Ok, good.
>
> > >  I checked and the message looks pretty mangled... but
> > >then again I'm not sure how readable the files in that format are supposed
> > >to be.
> >
> > The Postfix format is not meant to be human-readable. I know what it's
> > supposed to look like.
> >
> > >Also, any ideas on why postfix.in is doing all it's timestamps in UTC
> > >while postfix & MailScanner are not?
> >
> > Are you starting one as being "properly" root, and starting the other after
> > just doing "su"?
> > That would probably cause it.
>
>No - the only difference is that postfix.in is started with:
>/usr/sbin/postfix -c /etc/postfix.in start
>which is in rc.local
>
>Other than that, the two postfixes have nearly identical config files...

This will get done automatically once you have the "service" stuff above
sorted out.
--
Julian Field
www.MailScanner.info
Professional Support Services at www.MailScanner.biz
MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support