RE: [cobalt-users] [Raq 3] Sendmail quits responding problem

[Joseph R Brennskag <jbrennsk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> On Mon, 9 Sep 2002, Joseph R Brennskag wrote:
>
> > Hello all...
> >
> > I have been trying to work through a problem I am having with sendmail.
> > Sendmail will stop responding once the number of child
> processes reaches 12.
> > When I run the command 'ps -aux' to check the open processes, I
> will see a
> > number (usually 10 or 12) of 'stalled' or open sendmail
> processes like the
> > following:
> >
> >
> > USER       PID %CPU %MEM   VSZ  RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
> >
> > root      1170  0.0  1.0  2368 1332 ?        S    09:52   0:00 sendmail:
> > server rmny-stat-t05.citlink.net [170.215.147.5] cmd
> >
> > My question is how do I interpret what is happening on this
> line? This will
> > be repeated several times at different times and the process
> never closes.
> > A review of the mail log reveals that there is no one checking mail from
> > that IP at that time nor sending mail at that time.  It is a
> customer's IP
> > address. I have done a search but cannot find how to interpret
> that command.
> >
> > I know that I can increase the number of child processes allowed in
> > sendmail.cf, but since these processes don't die it will not help.
>
> The sendmail processes don't always close immeditately,
> check "netstat -tupan | grep sendmail" (no "")
> see what the status is of those connections
>
> Gerald
>

Gerald and Dan...

Thanks for the replies.  I think I have figured this one out.  We have a
customer who has multiple users and many of those systems have viruses.  A
review of the maillog and the mqueue verified that quite a few of their
users are passing the virus around.

Joe Brennskag
Hardy Telecom
304-897-9911
joe@xxxxxxxxxxxx