Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 14:29:26 -0800 From: Network Administrator <gbntech@gbn.com> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: swap problems Message-ID: <v04205500b65da50689e1@[199.97.207.103]> In-Reply-To: <14902.45639.389815.317579@guru.mired.org> References: <14902.45639.389815.317579@guru.mired.org>
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At 5:18 PM -0600 12/12/00, Mike Meyer wrote:
>That's a system-wide problem, but it could be caused by one errant
>process. Use top to check and see which processes are chewing up lots
>of swap.
That was the tip which led to the solution.
Turns out a local user sent a humongous email attachment -- 255 MB --
to another local user. The pop3 daemon was using > 255 MB of memory
space trying to deliver the file. With only 201 MB of swap space, we
were doomed.
Meanwhile, I struggled through adding an extra (external) drive to
expand the swap space. After I got the machine to run for more than
30 minutes at a time (the recipient's Eudora was checking mail every
30 minutes...), I was able to use top to pinpoint the problem.
If the attachment had come from outside the LAN, the mx host would
have rejected it as over the size limit. But since it was local mail,
it bypassed that check. I guess we now have some fiddling to do with
sendmail. ;-)
I've now been contacted by several FreeBSD consultants in the area,
so I can get someone in here to get us fixed up. But at least the
crisis is over.
Thanks to all for your help. Too bad nobody asked you how to elect a
president. ;-) Happy holidays.
Gratefully,
-Bob
[ ] [ ]
| { } ( ) | [ ] Robert L. Missbach
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