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Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 14:52:01 -0700
From: "Jeff V. Merkey" <jmerkey@timpanogas.org>
Organization: TRG, Inc.
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To: sendmail-bugs@sendmail.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: sendmail fails to deliver mail with attachments in /var/spool/mqueue
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Hey guys,

We got to the bottom of the sendmail problem.  The line:

 -O QueueLA=20 

and

 -O RefuseLA=18

Need to be cranked up in sendmail.cf to something high since the
background VM on a very busy Linux box seems to exceed this which causes
large emails to get stuck in the /var/spool/mqueue directory for long
periods of time.  Since vger is getting hammered with FTP all the time,
and is rarely idle.  This also explains what Richard was seeing with VM
thrashing in a box with low memory.  

The problem of dropping connections on 2.4 was related to the O RefuseLA
settings.  The defaults  in the RedHat, Suse, and OpenLinux RPMs are
clearly set too low for modern Linux kernels.  You may want them cranked
up to 100 or something if you want sendmail to always work.  

Jeff

"Jeff V. Merkey" wrote:
> 
> Claus,
> 
> This is a bug.  emails should not get stuck in the mail queue because
> your load averaging routine doesn't work right.  If this is so, then why
> do some emails (small ones) get through and big ones do not,
> irreguardless of delivery order.  If it were a loading problem one would
> think emails would still get processed in the order they arrived, not
> some arbitrary "order from hell" which is what was happening.  This is
> severely broken IMHO and you need to fix it.
> 
> Jeff
> 
> Claus Assmann wrote:
> >
> > All of these entries have an 'X':
> >
> > >               Mail Queue (11 requests)
> > > --Q-ID-- --Size-- -Priority- ---Q-Time--- -----------Sender/Recipient-----------
> > > FAA15716X   31418     200564 Nov  9 05:01 <linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org>
> > >           7BIT
> > >                                         <linux-archive@timpanogas.org>
> > >                                         <jmerkey@timpanogas.org>
> > > FAA20318X   32693     201751 Nov 10 05:29 <linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org>
> > >           7BIT
> > >                                         <linux-archive@timpanogas.org>
> > >                                         <jmerkey@timpanogas.org>
> > > SAA01998X   34484     203865 Nov  6 18:20 <linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org>
> > >           7BIT
> > >                                         <linux-archive@timpanogas.org>
> > >                                         <jmerkey@timpanogas.org>
> > > QAA01341X   65091     204150 Nov  6 16:50 <linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org>
> > >           7BIT
> > >                                         <mharris@opensourceadvocate.org>
> > > SAA13390X   41368     210478 Nov  8 18:03 <linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org>
> > >           7BIT
> > >                                         <linux-archive@timpanogas.org>
> > >                                         <jmerkey@timpanogas.org>
> > > LAA03425X  158115     218595 Nov  6 11:27 <jmerkey@timpanogas.org>
> > >                                         <Mark.Coe@rrd.com>
> > >                                         <jmerkey@timpanogas.com>
> > > QAA01343X   65091     234150 Nov  6 16:50 <linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org>
> > >           7BIT
> > >                                         <linux-archive@timpanogas.org>
> > >                                         <jmerkey@timpanogas.org>
> > > KAA21225X  205041     235799 Nov 10 10:26 <paperboy@g2news.com>
> > >       8BITMIME
> > >                                         <jmerkey@timpanogas.com>
> > > FAA20229X    1457     272283+Nov 10 05:01 <mharris@opensourceadvocate.org>
> > >                  (Warning: could not send message for past 1 hour)
> > >                                         <andre@linux-ide.org>
> > > QAA06681X  242511     272929 Nov  7 16:18 <jmerkey@timpanogas.org>
> > >       8BITMIME
> > >                                         <andre@timpanogas.org>
> > > PAA12261X  576306     606701 Nov  8 15:06 <langus@timpanogas.com>
> > >                                         <jmerkey@timpanogas.com>
> >
> > That is, the load on your machine is too high.
> >   3:27pm  up 29 min,  2 users,  load average: 10.00, 9.97, 8.50
> >
> > It seems as if this is broken, top shows 2 running processes
> > and 67 sleeping.
> >
> > If you run the queue with -O QueueLA=20 the entries are processed.
> > So you have to change your configuration to deal with the "high"
> > load, which I did right now by editing your .cf file.
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