A big message overwhelmed MailScanner
Kai Wang
kwang at UCALGARY.CA
Tue Oct 4 23:59:47 IST 2005
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We are running sendmail 8.11.7. It does not seem to be a lock problem. I
re-put the message to the incoming queue. You can see the load went up
quickly. According to lsof command, only one MailScanner process opened
the qf file. After about 10 minutes, I found the MailScanner process ID
changed from lsof command output. The original MailScanner process
disappeared. There was another log entry. I guess the previous uvscan
probably timed out and the original MailScanner process went away and
released the lock.
# How to lock spool files.
# Don't set this unless you *know* you need to.
# For sendmail, it defaults to "flock".
# For sendmail 8.13 onwards, you will probably need to change it to posix.
# For Exim, it defaults to "posix".
# No other type is implemented.
Lock Type =
[root at smtp1 mqueue.in]# uname -a
Linux smtp1.ucalgary.ca 2.4.21-15.EL #1 Thu Apr 22 00:27:41 EDT 2004
i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
[root at smtp1 mqueue.in]# cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 3 (Taroon Update 2)
[root at smtp1 mqueue.in]# /usr/sbin/sendmail -d0.1 -bt < /dev/null
Version 8.11.7
Compiled with: LDAPMAP MAP_REGEX LOG MATCHGECOS MIME7TO8 MIME8TO7
NAMED_BIND NETINET NETINET6 NETUNIX NEWDB NIS QUEUE SASL
SCANF
SFIO SMTP STARTTLS TCPWRAPPERS USERDB
============ SYSTEM IDENTITY (after readcf) ============
(short domain name) $w = smtp1
(canonical domain name) $j = smtp1.ucalgary.ca
(subdomain name) $m = ucalgary.ca
(node name) $k = smtp1.ucalgary.ca
========================================================
ADDRESS TEST MODE (ruleset 3 NOT automatically invoked)
Enter <ruleset> <address>
[root at smtp1 test]# ls -l /var/spool/mqueue.in/qfj94FuH024035
-rw------- 1 root root 868 Oct 4 16:39
/var/spool/mqueue.in/qfj94FuH024035
[root at smtp1 test]# top
16:41:07 up 25 days, 16:25, 2 users, load average: 5.73, 3.25, 2.52
63 processes: 59 sleeping, 4 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states: cpu user nice system irq softirq iowait idle
total 84.4% 0.0% 15.2% 0.0% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0%
Mem: 2064640k av, 2043832k used, 20808k free, 0k shrd, 174268k
buff
1358992k actv, 406880k in_d, 39624k in_c
Swap: 2048248k av, 1756k used, 2046492k free 1587096k
cached
PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM TIME CPU COMMAND
18369 root 25 0 24328 23M 1872 R 43.2 1.1 0:18 0 uvscan
1234 root 20 0 18952 18M 2264 S 23.4 0.9 3:20 0
MailScanner
1702 root 21 0 18960 18M 2224 S 3.4 0.9 3:01 0
MailScanner
18660 root 21 0 3996 3996 2824 R 1.6 0.1 0:00 0 sendmail
1513 root 21 0 19236 18M 2224 S 0.2 0.9 3:10 0
MailScanner
[root at smtp1 test]# lsof /var/spool/mqueue.in/qfj94FuH024035
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
MailScann 6523 root 6uW REG 8,7 868 95817
/var/spool/mqueue.in/qfj94FuH024035
[root at smtp1 test]# lsof /var/spool/mqueue.in/qfj94FuH024035
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
MailScann 1395 root 6uW REG 8,7 868 95817
/var/spool/mqueue.in/qfj94FuH024035
[root at smtp1 test]# ps -ef | grep MailScan
root 18664 1 0 10:53 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/perl
-I/usr/lib/MailScanner /usr/sbin/MailScanner
/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
root 1024 18664 2 14:54 ? 00:03:01 /usr/bin/perl
-I/usr/lib/MailScanner /usr/sbin/MailScanner
/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
root 1133 18664 3 14:54 ? 00:03:52 /usr/bin/perl
-I/usr/lib/MailScanner /usr/sbin/MailScanner
/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
root 1234 18664 3 14:54 ? 00:03:38 /usr/bin/perl
-I/usr/lib/MailScanner /usr/sbin/MailScanner
/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
root 1277 18664 2 14:54 ? 00:03:17 /usr/bin/perl
-I/usr/lib/MailScanner /usr/sbin/MailScanner
/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
root 1395 18664 3 14:54 ? 00:04:03 /usr/bin/perl
-I/usr/lib/MailScanner /usr/sbin/MailScanner
/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
root 1513 18664 3 14:55 ? 00:03:36 /usr/bin/perl
-I/usr/lib/MailScanner /usr/sbin/MailScanner
/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
root 1702 18664 2 14:55 ? 00:03:25 /usr/bin/perl
-I/usr/lib/MailScanner /usr/sbin/MailScanner
/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
root 2220 18664 3 14:56 ? 00:03:39 /usr/bin/perl
-I/usr/lib/MailScanner /usr/sbin/MailScanner
/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
root 9999 18664 3 15:12 ? 00:03:26 /usr/bin/perl
-I/usr/lib/MailScanner /usr/sbin/MailScanner
/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
root 21822 18664 2 16:50 ? 00:00:05 /usr/bin/perl
-I/usr/lib/MailScanner /usr/sbin/MailScanner
/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
root 22995 28404 0 16:53 pts/0 00:00:00 grep MailScan
Oct 4 16:40:05 smtp1 MailScanner[6523]: Saved archive copies of
j94Me2J18130 j94Me2J18147 j94Me1J18118 j94Me1J18120 j94Me1J18042
j94Me2J18139 j94Me3J18155 j94Me2J18137 j94Me3J18153 j94Me2J18133
j94Me2J18149 j94Me2J18131 j94FuH024035 j94Me2J18128 j94Me2J18126
j94Me1J18116 j94Me1J18114 j94Me3J18157 j94Me2J18141 j94Me2J18151
j94Me1J18122 j94Me2J18135 j94Me2J18145 j94Me2J18124
Oct 4 16:50:35 smtp1 MailScanner[1395]: Saved archive copies of
j94Me2J18130 j94Me2J18147 j94Me1J18118 j94Me1J18120 j94Me1J18042
j94Me2J18139 j94Me3J18155 j94Me2J18137 j94Me3J18153 j94Me2J18133
j94Me2J18149 j94Me2J18131 j94FuH024035 j94Me2J18128 j94Me2J18126
j94Me1J18116 j94Me1J18114 j94Me3J18157 j94Me2J18141 j94Me2J18151
j94Me1J18122 j94Me2J18135 j94Me2J18145 j94Me2J18124
Julian Field wrote:
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>Hash: SHA1
>
> From the fact that several different MailScanner processes all tried to
>process the same message, I would say your "Lock Type" is set wrong.
>What version of sendmail are you using and what operating system and
>distribution are you using?
>
>If you are using Linux and sendmail 8.13.1 or greater, then you need to set
> Lock Type = posix
>in your MailScanner.conf. You will then need to "service MailScanner
>restart".
>
>Kai Wang wrote:
>
>
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>We are running MailScanner 4.43.8. Our message size limit is 50M. I
>>noticed a valid message was stuck in MailScanner for over an hour. The
>>server's load was very high and email processing was very slow.
>>Eventually I had to move it to the delivery queue manually. Does
>>anybody know what's the best practice for this situation?
>>
>>-rw------- 1 root root 48384095 Oct 4 09:57 dfj94FuH024035
>>-rw------- 1 root root 867 Oct 4 09:57 qfj94FuH024035
>>
>>Oct 4 09:57:20 smtp1 pc214-161.psych.ucalgary.ca [136.159.214.161]:
>>DATA[24035]: j94FuH024035: from=<XXXXXX at ucalgary.ca>, size=48384415,
>>class=0, nrcpts=1,
>>msgid=<a2a2d24bbef12aafca57ff41575a2abe at ucalgary.ca>, proto=ESMTP,
>>daemon=MTA, mech=PLAIN, relay=pc214-161.psych.ucalgary.ca
>>[136.159.214.161]
>>Oct 4 09:57:20 smtp1 pc214-161.psych.ucalgary.ca [136.159.214.161]:
>>DATA[24035]: j94FuH024035: to=<XXXXXX at ucalgary.ca>, delay=00:01:03,
>>mailer=relay, pri=48414415, stat=queued
>>Oct 4 09:57:21 smtp1 pc214-161.psych.ucalgary.ca [136.159.214.161]:
>>DATA[24035]: NOQUEUE: --> 250 2.0.0 j94FuH024035 Message accepted for
>>delivery
>>Oct 4 09:57:21 smtp1 MailScanner[7673]: Saved archive copies of
>>j94FuH024035
>>Oct 4 10:07:39 smtp1 MailScanner[8930]: Saved archive copies of
>>j94G7W029517 j94FuH024035
>>Oct 4 10:18:02 smtp1 MailScanner[1963]: Saved archive copies of
>>j94GHv001891 j94G7W029517 j94FuH024035 j94GHx001902 j94GHv001893
>>j94GHx001907 j94GHx001912 j94GHt001887 j94GHx001908
>>Oct 4 10:28:27 smtp1 MailScanner[7135]: Saved archive copies of
>>j94GHv001891 j94G7W029517 j94FuH024035 j94GHx001902 j94GHv001893
>>j94GHx001907 j94GHx001912 j94GHt001887 j94GHx001908
>>Oct 4 10:38:44 smtp1 MailScanner[7847]: Saved archive copies of
>>j94GHv001891 j94G7W029517 j94FuH024035 j94GHx001902 j94GHv001893
>>j94GHx001907 j94GHx001912 j94GHt001887 j94GHx001908
>>Oct 4 10:49:07 smtp1 MailScanner[16427]: Saved archive copies of
>>j94GHv001891 j94G7W029517 j94FuH024035 j94GHx001902 j94GHv001893
>>j94GHx001907 j94GHx001912 j94GHt001887 j94GHx001908
>>Oct 4 10:53:26 smtp1 MailScanner[18665]: Saved archive copies of
>>j94GHv001891 j94GrOJ18662 j94Gr0018612 j94Gqt018568 j94G7W029517
>>j94FuH024035 j94GHx001902 j94Gqv018575 j94GHv001893 j94GHx001907
>>j94Gqv018574 j94Gqt018562 j94Gqq018538 j94Gqr018549 j94GHx001912
>>j94Gqr018543 j94Gqp018536 j94GHt001887 j94GHx001908
>>Oct 4 11:03:42 smtp1 MailScanner[18996]: Saved archive copies of
>>j94GHv001891 j94GrOJ18662 j94Gr0018612 j94Gqt018568 j94G7W029517
>>j94FuH024035 j94GHx001902 j94Gqv018575 j94GHv001893 j94GHx001907
>>j94Gqv018574 j94Gqt018562 j94Gqq018538 j94Gqr018549 j94GHx001912
>>j94Gqr018543 j94Gqp018536 j94GHt001887 j94GHx001908
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>
>>
>
>- --
>Julian Field
>www.MailScanner.info
>Buy the MailScanner book at www.MailScanner.info/store
>Professional Support Services at www.MailScanner.biz
>MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support
>
>PGP footprint: EE81 D763 3DB0 0BFD E1DC 7222 11F6 5947 1415 B654
>
>
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>PxhZvsli7IVOF7KJEhsm/tx6
>=v9LZ
>-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>
>
--
Kai Wang
System Services
Information Technologies, University of Calgary,
2500 University Drive, N.W.,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4
Phone (403) 220-2423, Fax (403) 282-9361
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