Re: exim dying on slink
On Fri, Sep 10, 1999 at 12:00:45PM -0400, drew@penguin.ipunet.com wrote
>
> I've recently installed a system with Slink, and set it up as
> a mail hub for our domain. We also run a type of mailing list
> from another box, which our mail hub acts as a smarthost for.
>
> However, when the mailing list sends out email (anywhere from
> 1-2 thousand at once), after a number of successful deliveries,
> the mail hub stops accepting connections on port 25.
>
> In order to send any more, I have to kill -HUP inetd.
>
> Here's the smtp line in /etc/inetd.conf:
> smtp stream tcp nowait mail /usr/sbin/exim exim -bs
>
>
> Anybody know what I can do to correct this problem, other than
> slowing down how fast the mailing list sends out email?
>
Probably, inetd is limitting the rate at which smtpd sessions
are initiated; by default, inetd only allows 40 connections to
a service per minute.
Your options appear to be:
1. Raise the limit imposed by inetd, by editing the line for exim
to read, e.g.,
smtp stream tcp nowait.200 mail /usr/sbin/exim exim -bs
2. Persuade your mailing list software to use batched smtp so that
several (all?) deliveries may be requested on a single connection,
3. Limit the rate at which your mailing list software connects to port
25,
4. Run exim as a stand-alone daemon, which then allows you to control
smtp service based on the number of concurrent sessions or the system
load average, rather than on the rate at which connections are made.
Personally I prefer number 4, possibly combined with 2 or 3.
To run exim 'stand-alone' comment out the line near the top of
/etc/init.d/exim that reads
exit 0
and then run
/etc/init.d/exim start
as root.
On my systems, I also change the options that exim is run with from
"-bd -q30m" to just "-bd", as the queue is already run periodically
from cron.
To control smtp connections when exim runs stand-alone, look at the
following exim configuration options:
smtp_accept_max
smtp_connect_backlog
smtp_load_reserve
You may also want to look at the queue_smtp directive, which may
improve the efficiency with which mail is actually delivered to
remote hosts.
John P.
--
huiac@camtech.net.au
john@huiac.apana.org.au
"Oh - I - you know - my job is to fear everything." - Bill Gates in Denmark
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