mailscanner-mrtg - no graphics?
Jason Burzenski
jburzenski at AMERICANHM.COM
Mon Oct 27 16:05:11 GMT 2003
What kind of user guide are you looking for?
I use ms-mrtg to provide an operations group with a way to monitor the
system from a web browser. Here is some generic verbiage that may be of use
to you.
Procedure 1: Status Review
Frequency: Every 2 hours
The server status pages are available via web interface and show the daily
progression in 5 minute increments of the following values:
1. total mail relayed per day
2. total spam identified per day
3. copies of sendmail per day
4. copies of MailScanner per day
5. bytes transferred per day
6. memory daily graph
7. incoming queue daily graph
8. outgoing queue daily graph
9. load avg daily graph
10. cpu utilization daily graph
11. Ethernet traffic per day
12. /var/spool/ disk utilization
13. / disk utilization
Clicking on any one of these graphs will display the historical record of
that particular statistic. Any deviations from the normal pattern should be
investigated. For example, if the incoming queue graph shows a growing
number of messages that may be an indication that the mailscanner service is
not running or is having a problem.
The current MRTG graphs can be found here:
(insert your URLs here)
Each graph should be visually inspected for unusual activity. Unexpected
results may be represented graphically as a spike, a dip or drop off or a
flat line. For some graphs these behaviors are normal, so it is important
to understand what each chart represents and to review historical chart data
as a comparison.
Individual Chart Details
Mail Relayed daily graph represents the total number of messages forwarded
through the system on a daily basis. Messages that are quarantined are not
counted here because they are not forwarded through to the mail servers.
This graph should be steadily rising through the day. Because it is a
constant incremental count, it will only increase or stay the same and NEVER
go down. A sharp rise in traffic may be related to a denial of service
attack or mass mailing. A flat-line of activity can be indicative of
service problems and the service should be verified from both inside and
outside the local network to ensure availability.
Spam Identified daily graph is a count of messages scoring greater than or
equal to the Spam Score as defined by MailScanner. This includes High
Scoring spam messages. This graph can be monitored for extreme deviations
but should rise about equally with the Mail Relayed daily graph on an
average day.
Virii Caught daily graph shows a total number of message found that violate
content filtering rules. These messages are quarantined because of virii,
forbidden extensions and html embedded malicious code. Any sharp rise in
this graph should be investigated.
Copies of Sendmail / MailScanner daily graph is an indicator of the
environment health. It is not uncommon to see Sendmail processes reach into
the hundreds during busy periods. Each message being delivered may spawn an
additional sendmail process. Copies of sendmail will usually show large
spikes during periods of high activity. MailScanner process should remain
at a mostly steady number throughout the day. If this number goes up
dramatically, MailScanner may be experiencing problems or a lock condition.
The MailScanner system automatically resets itself dynamically every 4 hours
to prevent lock conditions and other problems that may occur in a volatile
environment.
Mbytes of Mail Transferred daily graph is useful for determining the total
network load due to external email. Not required to be monitored except for
extreme variations.
Memory / Load Average / CPU Utilization daily graphs are used for system
health monitoring. Any deviation on these graphs should be carefully
examined and reported on. These figures should be compared to 'normal
operating baselines' on a regular basis.
NOTE: CPU Utilization is the average utilization for all CPUs.
Files in Incoming / Outgoing Queue daily graphs provide an indication of the
queue status. If there is a steadily rising number of messages in either
queue there is most likely a problem transferring mail. If the buildup is
in the incoming queue MailScanner may be down or experiencing problems
processing mail. If the buildup is in the outgoing queue the problem is
most likely related to the mail server (smtp service may be down). DNS
problems are also a probable cause of outbound queue buildup. Any rapid
increase in either of these queues should be reported as soon as they are
discovered.
Server Ethernet Traffic daily graph shows inbound and outbound network
traffic. A spike in this graph may indicate a possible denial of service
attack.
Spaced Used daily graphs should be monitored on a regular basis. These
figures should rise at a relatively constant rate. If the totals rise above
50% or if a spike is observed, the condition should be reported.
NOTE: The MRTG graphing system operates on the MS servers but completely
independent of the system mail processing applications. Therefore it has
the ability to continue to operate and when the system has failed. If any
of the graphs that are normally very active appear to flatline (show zero
activity) then it is likely that the system has failed and the services
should be checked for availability (see checking services below).
Any conditions worthy of reporting should be e-mailed to the system primary
admin via email.
Any condition that indicates system instability should be reported via email
to the primary admin and the primary admin should be notified via
phone/pager.
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Russell [mailto:prussell at MTELIZA.COM.AU]
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 6:14 AM
To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: mailscanner-mrtg - no graphics?
Thank you Kevin, I have currently just built my
MailScanner/Redhat/Postfix/MSmrtg box. I plan to finish going through the
excercise of being to install it and get it all working. I am happy to grab
the snapshot tomorrow and try it. (i am at home now). Once i have everything
working i will start again from scratch and document everything i do
(requirement where i work) and we place into production and slowly turn on
things like av and sa.
The problem i am having with no pngs in MSmrtg is almost certainly a
specific MRTG/GD/Libpng issue according to the few google results i have.
cron is pumping out the following errors to me, very frequently. Which, not
being any type or perl guru, are almost impossible for me to fix :(
Possible precedence problem on bitwise | operator at
/usr/bin/../lib/mrtg2/BER.pm line 619.
gd-png: fatal libpng error: Invalid filter type specified
gd-png error: setjmp returns error condition
gd-png: fatal libpng error: Invalid filter type specified
gd-png error: setjmp returns error condition
gd-png: fatal libpng error: Invalid filter type specified
gd-png error: setjmp returns error condition
gd-png: fatal libpng error: Invalid filter type specified
gd-png error: setjmp returns error condition
gd-png: fatal libpng error: Invalid filter type specified
gd-png error: setjmp returns error condition
gd-png: fatal libpng error: Invalid filter type specified
gd-png error: setjmp returns error condition
gd-png: fatal libpng error: Invalid filter type specified
gd-png error: setjmp returns error condition
If there is any form of userguide etc on ms-mrtg could some one please post
me a link?
Kind regards and thanks
Pete
Kevin Spicer <kevin at KEVINSPICER.CO.UK>
Sent by: MailScanner mailing list <MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
10/27/2003 07:37 AM GMT
Please respond to MailScanner mailing list
To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
cc:
bcc:
Subject: Re: mailscanner-mrtg - no graphics?
Hi Peter, I'm the current maintainer of mailscanner-mrtg so hopefully I
can answer your questions...
>On Mon, 2003-10-27 at 01:39, Peter Russell wrote:
>Hi there, firstly, is this the forum to provide feedback to the
>authors of the mailscanner product?
Not really - please use the forums on the sourceforge project page at
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mailscannermrtg/
<https://sourceforge.net/projects/mailscannermrtg/>
>Secondly, we have MS installed and running nicely,
>postfix+redhat9+mailscanner - i installed mailscanner-mrtg but all my
>graphs are boken images (juts get the little square with a x in it, no
>pictures.
Maybe libpng issues as per Ugo's post if the following info doesn't
help...
>1. Does ms-mrtg support postix? could this be my problem?
Not the current stable version, but there is a development snapshot up
at http://mailscannermrtg.sourceforge.net/snap.html
<http://mailscannermrtg.sourceforge.net/snap.html> which does (as well
as Exim). This will form the basis for the next release which (all
being well) should be released at the end of this week.
If you do try the snapshot I'd be very interested in your feedback.
--
Kevin Spicer
kevin AT kevinspicer DOT co DOT uk
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