queue gets backed up frequently

[Don Newcomer]

Are you running 'check_mailscanner' in cron on a regular basis?  It could
be that it's dying and not restarting until this job runs again.  I run it
every 5 minutes.  It doesn't cost much and saves lots of heartache.

================================================================================
Don Newcomer                                            Dickinson College
Senior Manager, Systems                                 P.O. Box 1773
newcomer at dickinson.edu                                  Carlisle, PA  17013
                                                        Phone: (717) 245-1256
                                                          FAX: (717) 245-1690


On Wed, 7 Apr 2004, Chris W. Parker wrote:

> Mike Kercher <mailto:mike at CAMAROSS.NET>
>     on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 1:18 PM said:
>
> > Do you have any users on your box that may be running crons under
> > their UID on these days?
>
> no because there are no other users.
>
> > What do your maillogs show on the days these backups occur?
>
> i wouldn't know what to look for.
>
> although i can tell you that on these days when the queue gets clogged
> i'll watch the maillog with 'tail -f'. the odd thing that i see is that
> mailscanner doesn't run at all for a long time. there aren't any
> messages about mailscanner not being able to process the messages, or
> errors or anything like that. simply, mailscanner just doens't run until
> a certain period of time when it will process all the queued mail in a
> matter of minutes.
>
> > Is it
> > possible you are being used as a relay?
>
> i supposed it's possible but i don't know how to check for this. i would
> suspect that if i were in fact being used as a relay i'd see this more
> regularly. but that's just an assumption.
>
> how can i determine whether or not i am being used as a relay?
>
>
>
> thanks,
> chris.
>