[Mimedefang] Re: sendmail processes remaining after message rejected

[Scott Silva]

Michael D. Sofka spake the following on 8/31/2007 6:41 AM:
> I sent a version of this to the CanIt list last night....
> 
> The load on our smtp servers has gone way up the past few days.
> There are now 250--300 sendmail processes running on each machine,
> here normally there are fewer than 100 processes running.
> 
> Most of the processes are from connections that were rejected,
> due to RBLs, or high spam score.  But, the sendmail processes
> remain in "cmd read" mode.  I've firewalled a few of the more
> aggressive IPs.
> 
> There was some discussion on the Mimedefang list about
> completewhois going offline, and slowing down spamassassin.
> I've removed the completewhois rules from spamassassin
> yesterday, but this has not helped.
> 
> Since last night I noticed that we're running out of Mimedefang
> slaves.  Not surprising if old sendmail connections are hanging
> around, but I wonder if this could be a cause rather than an
> effect.
> 
> Has anybody else seen this?  I remember something similar with a
> Brazilian ISP a few years ago. (More than a few--it predated CanIt.)
> 
> There is more email traffic this week, from returning students
> and classes starting.   But, not that much more traffic.
> 
Another guide that any body using sendmail should read is 
http://technoids.org/dossed.html



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