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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>=v9LZ
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>
>  
>

-- 
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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