how to monitor mailscanner is running

[John Rudd]

"Spicer, Kevin" wrote:
>
> Michele Neylon :: Blacknight Solutions wrote:
> > There are a couple of ways you can do this. If you use:
> > /etc/rc.d/init.d/MailScanner status
> > you should see if the process is running or not and script it to act
> > accordingly. Another thing would be to monitor the process using
> > something like uptime
> >
> You should ensure that sendmail can't start on its own by disabling it's init script (chkconfig sendmail off on many systems).  Its also a good idea to add deliberate syntax errors into the /etc/sysconfig/sendmail file - to prevent it getting re-enabled.
>

I respectfully disagree.

You should make sure mailscanner's rc file doesn't start/stop sendmail,
and you should keep sendmail in its own rc file.  There are lots of good
reasons for keeping them seperate, and only one (bad) reason for keeping
them together (which is "convenience").


Why to not use mailscanner's current rc file:

1) encapsulation and specialization - each thing should do its own thing
its own way, and should keep its parts in its own place.  That way,
changes to one don't have to be tracked with the other.  Each service
(MTA, MailScanner, NFS, web servers, etc.) should have its own rc
script, and that rc script should be specialized around that one
service.  (you may think its absurd to include NFS and web servers in
that list, but I'm just including it to illustrate why it's absurd to
include the MTA with MailScanner in one rc script).

2) flexibility - in a way this builds on encapsulation, but as it is
now, the mailscanner rc script only works with MTAs of certain types.
When using a different MTA (such as CommuniGate Pro), where you don't
want MailScanner to stop and start the MTA (and, really, mailscanner
should NOT ever stop nor start your MTA), the mailscanner rc script
becomes a tangled mess.  If mailscanner's rc script was MTA agnostic, it
would be more flexible.


MailScanner's rc script shouldn't stop nor start MTA's like CommuniGate
Pro.  CommuniGate Pro does a lot more than just SMTP, and it works in
clustered environments.  Having to take CGP off line every time you want
or need to restart MailScanner would be incredibly obtuse.  It's just
plain _wrong_ to have the MTA in the MailScanner rc script.