Server Crash

[Walter D. Wyndroski]

    I'm presuming you are using sendmail. If I overlooked which MTA you are
using, please forgive. What are the size of your sendmail queues? I run a
Fedora Mailserver (recently upgraded from RH9) with over 3000 accounts. My
server handles fairly large loads as well. I was having the same problem
where my server would completely lock up with nothing on the console or in
syslog. It would ping but nothing else.

    I run MailScanner, Sendmail, Procmail, and TMDA (an open-source
challenge-response anti-spam system, http://www.tmda.net ). In my case, I
found that my sendmail outbound queue had grown to over 100,000 messages
waiting to be delivered b/c TMDA was sending a challenge email to thousands
of accounts that didn't exist mostly b/c of viruses and worms. I had to set
up multiple outbound sendmail queues which fixed my problem. Before the
rolling queues, my load was 27+ with lock ups. Now it remains around 0.63.

Hope that helps.

Walt Wyndroski



----- Original Message -----
From: "Boulytchev, Vasiliy" <vboulytchev at COINFOTECH.COM>
To: <MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 12:03 PM
Subject: Re: Server Crash


> This server is doing MASSIVE loads of mail.  This server is really being
> worked by spam and virus filtering, and just large loads of email.  I am
> thinking its more of a kernel/raid controller driver issue.........
That's
> my thought.  Maybe the enterprise kernel I am running, was not compiled
with
> the right driver.........  That just makes more sense, because people are
> reporting problems with MD 9.2, and saying that redhat is fine.
>
>
> Vasiliy Boulytchev
> Colorado Information Technologies, Inc.
> http://www.coinfotech.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MailScanner mailing list [mailto:MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On
Behalf
> Of Chris Stone
> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:54 AM
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: Server Crash
>
> That one is running RedHat 9 - 2.4.20-30.9 smp kernel. What are you
running?
>
> Have sendmail, MailScanner, MySQL and Apache running on the box. Apache is
> for the MailWatch interface and gets very little use (me only really), and
> MySQL only for the MailWatch hooks. So, other than that little bit,
sendmail
> and MailScanner are really the only things doing anything on the box -
which
> does have a pretty steady flow of messages, but not huge amounts - running
> about 5000/day at present.
>
>
> Chris Stone
> High Mountain Software
> www.hms.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MailScanner mailing list [mailto:MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On
Behalf
> Of Boulytchev, Vasiliy
> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:52 AM
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: Server Crash
>
> Aha!   Im not the only one :)))
>
> What OS are you running?
>
>
> Vasiliy Boulytchev
> Colorado Information Technologies, Inc.
> http://www.coinfotech.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MailScanner mailing list [mailto:MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On
Behalf
> Of Chris Stone
> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:41 AM
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: Server Crash
>
>
> Had a similar problem this morning for the first time on a new server that
> has been running for a couple weeks now without issue. Console screen
clean,
> syslog shows nothing. But checking the log entry timestamps at 00:41 this
> morning it all died. Could ping the server but that's it. Telneting to
port
> 25 did make a connection, but no banner from sendmail.
>
>
> Chris Stone
> High Mountain Software
> www.hms.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MailScanner mailing list [mailto:MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On
Behalf
> Of Boulytchev, Vasiliy
> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:34 AM
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: Server Crash
>
> NO!  Nothing on console/syslog :(
>
> Ho Hard Drive activity either.   NICs are still going wild.  Not able to
> communicate with the server period.
>
>
> Vasiliy Boulytchev
> Colorado Information Technologies, Inc.
> http://www.coinfotech.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MailScanner mailing list [mailto:MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On
Behalf
> Of Spicer, Kevin
> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 9:13 AM
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: Server Crash
>
>
> Boulytchev, Vasiliy wrote:
> > Ladies and Gents,
> >       Hopefully everyone can participate on this discussion. One of
> our
> > production servers keeps crashing on a random basis.
>
> Could you clarify what you mean by 'crashes'.  Completely unresponsive?
> anything on the console?  syslog?
>
>
>
> BMRB International
> http://www.bmrb.co.uk
> +44 (0)20 8566 5000
> _________________________________________________________________
> This message (and any attachment) is intended only for the recipient and
may
> contain confidential and/or privileged material.  If you have received
this
> in error, please contact the sender and delete this message immediately.
> Disclosure, copying or other action taken in respect of this email or in
> reliance on it is prohibited.  BMRB International Limited accepts no
> liability in relation to any personal emails, or content of any email
which
> does not directly relate to our business.
>