From owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Feb 16 01:33:12 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1743E16A406 for ; Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:33:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from mail-out3.apple.com (mail-out3.apple.com [17.254.13.22]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E042913C4A5 for ; Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:33:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from relay5.apple.com (a17-128-113-35.apple.com [17.128.113.35]) by mail-out3.apple.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l1G0uFmU029424; Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:56:15 -0800 (PST) Received: from relay5.apple.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by relay5.apple.com (Symantec Mail Security) with ESMTP id 3C0BF29C00B; Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:56:15 -0800 (PST) X-AuditID: 11807123-a03b9bb000000a1d-a1-45d5012feaf6 Received: from [17.214.13.96] (cswiger1.apple.com [17.214.13.96]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by relay5.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with ESMTP id 2E67030400D; Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:56:15 -0800 (PST) Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) In-Reply-To: <20070215230722.GA27427@dwpc.dwlabs.ca> References: <001701c75133$e1cb0870$dd64000a@transnet.cu> <20070215230722.GA27427@dwpc.dwlabs.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <552B7B1A-D7D4-43DD-A75C-252665E5D6B0@mac.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Chuck Swiger Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:56:14 -0800 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAA== Cc: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org, Roldan Vallejo Olivera Subject: Re: problems with KAV for FreeBSD 6.0 X-BeenThere: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Internet Services Providers List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:33:12 -0000 On Thu, Feb 15, 2007 at 02:02:47PM -0500, Roldan Vallejo Olivera wrote: > hello list: > I have a FreeBSD 6.0 running in an HP Proliant GL 370, Dual Xeon > 3.2 GHz, > 1GB RAM, and RAID-5 75 GB, in this system we have a BIND DNS > service and a > Sendmail as a mail relay-only server, processing an average of 3GB > messages > daily, we have purchased a KAV license for 4 GB traffic daily, but > we are > having problems: sometimes our server runs out of resources and > issues the > following message error: > "maxproc limit exceeded by uid 0, please see tuning(7) and > login.conf(5) > ns1 sendmail[545] syserr (root): openmailer > (smtpscanner): cannot fork: resource temporarily unavailable no queue: > syserr(root): daemon: cannot fork" > > at this moment when I try to login at the server i receive this error: > "login: login: fork: resource temporarily unavailable" > > the server replies at ping command, but doesn't allow telnet > neither ssh, > and stops processing messages. This sort of problem can happen when someone mailbombs your MTA, causing it to fork excessive numbers of children. It could also happen if your anti-spam/virus-scanning stuff ends up getting stuck and leaving frozen processes around. Consider adjusting this: # maximum number of children we allow at one time #O MaxDaemonChildren=0 ...in your sendmail configuration to a reasonable value, based on how many other processes are running and how big your process table is ("sysctl kern.maxproc"?) If that doesn't solve your issue, perhaps you should set up a cron job to periodically put the output of "ps aux" into a text file, and remain logged into the machine. When you fill up the process table, try to check this file, otherwise check it promptly after a reboot if you have to do that, and see which processes are filling up the system and/or getting stuck. > we have noticed this scenario runs out of > free memory as we read the output of top command: It's not directly related; FreeBSD will happily use almost all RAM simply for (inactive) page caching, and this is normal and does not indicate a problem. However, if you encounter excessive swapping activity, it's possible that you'll end up with lots of processes starting up but not being able to complete their work and exit, which would cause the system to fall over as described above. -- -Chuck