MailScanner, huge bayes_toks, out-of-mem problem

[Martin Hepworth]

Robert Waldner wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Running MS 4.25-6, SA 2.60-2, on Debian GNU/Linux.
>
> Tracing out-of-mem problems, I noticed that once in a while a
>  MailScanner-process (via SA, I guess?) will read from bayes_toks until
>  memory is exhausted, eg it does nothing but
>
> pread(6, "\0\0\0\0\1\0\0\0x\37\0\0\0\0\0\0\nK\0\0r\1\1\3\0\2\363"..., 4096, 32997376) = 4096
> mremap(0x424cb000, 10108928, 10108928, MREMAP_MAYMOVE) = 0x424cb000
> pread(6, "\0\0\0\0\1\0\0\0\nK\0\0x\37\0\0\0\0\0\0\230\0<\n\0\2\347"..., 4096, 78684160) = 4096
> pread(6, "\0\0\0\0\1\0\0\0y\37\0\0\0\0\0\0|P\0\0t\1\5\3\0\2\374\17"..., 4096, 33001472) = 4096
> mremap(0x424cb000, 10108928, 10113024, MREMAP_MAYMOVE) = 0x424cb000
>
> fd 6 -> /var/spool/.spamassassin/bayes_toks
>
> Ok, bayes_toks is _huge_, ~ 82M, but what I'm trying to understand is:
>  - how does MailScanner (SA?) determine which process will read in the whole
>    bayes_toks?
>  - how does the size of bayes_toks correspond to the size of the
>    MailScanner-process? bayes_toks is ~ 82M, I've seen
>    MailScanner-processes with size 203M (RSS 58M), but usually they're
>    size < 50k, RSS < 30M (all values according to `top`)
>
> Yes, I could do with a smaller ham/spam corpus, but what I'd like to
>  know before I nuke the bayes-db is if that's the problem and why.
>  Maybe I could just throw in more memory, currently the box has 144 MB
>  RAM, 256 MB swap.
>
> cheers+tia,
> &rw
Robert

most people recommend at least 512MB RAM for a Mailscanner server. The
more RAM the better especially if you are using GNU/Linux and tmpfs for
the Mailscanner working area.

I've got a 600Mhz celeron with 512MB ram, 1GB swap running on FreeBSD
4.8, SA with Bayes but no RBL's anywhere, Mailwatch with a local
database and it's handling 9-10K messages a day easily. (btw something
like 75% of this is inbound spam!)

--
Martin Hepworth
Snr Systems Administrator
Solid State Logic
Tel: +44 (0)1865 842300


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