[Mimedefang] Ratio for sendmail and MD processes

[David Nelson]

I configured my mail relay with 50 MD processes and 50 sendmail child
processes.  After looking around, it became horrifically apparent that
there were not enough sendmail processes available to answer mail
requests.  I increased the number of processes for MD and sendmail,
which ultimately led to the system page faulting itself to death and me
feeling really dumb!  :)

I was under the misguided impression that there should be a 1:1 ratio of
sendmail processes to MD processes.  So, I cranked up the number of
sendmail processes to 100 and cranked down the number of MD processes to
10 (arbitrary numbers for testing).

I ended up solving the sendmail problem, but I think I created a new
one.  When I look at md-mx-ctrl, I still see most if not all the MD
processes sitting idle.  There's also a sorely uneven distribution of
the workload across the slaves (status and histo shown side-by-side
below).

Slave 0: idle      9,712
Slave 1: stopped  12,431
Slave 2: stopped   8,329
Slave 3: stopped   5,127
Slave 4: stopped   3,097
Slave 5: idle      1,993
Slave 6: idle      1,300
Slave 7: stopped     982
Slave 8: stopped     810
Slave 9: stopped     722
Slave 10: stopped    579
Slave 11: stopped    486
Slave 12: stopped    419
Slave 13: busy       389
Slave 14: idle       334
Slave 15: stopped    337
Slave 16: stopped    323
Slave 17: stopped    314
Slave 18: idle       271
Slave 19: busy       172
Slave 20: busy       112
Slave 21: idle        67
Slave 22: stopped     43
Slave 23: stopped     20
Slave 24: idle         8

Presumably, these numbers were skewed even more when I had the 1:1
ratio, but I have no evidence to support that supposition.  I want to
get the most "bang for the buck" out the system, but the numbers and
statuses above have me confused.

So...

Is this normal?

Do I trim back the number of MD processes?

If I trim the number of MD processes, does the workload distribution
become more linear? 

Last but not least...

Is there a recommended ratio of sendmail processes to MD processes?  I
realize "my mileage may vary," but I wonder if I'm even in the ballpark.

Thanks!
-- Dave