Hello
I am wondering if anyone has seen similar problems and was able to
pinpoint the cause.
System is a heavy-usage general user access Digital-Unix 4.0D box.
Exim version 2.05 (but the logs show similar problems with what would
have been earlier versions).
The default maxuprc = 64 (set in the kernel but we would rather not
increase this parameter) but there is no per-user option available.
The problems often occur when there is a hiccup with the central mailers
and there is a large delivery - not at all obvious in which direction.
Setting a queue_only_load is difficult as the system is overloaded
(main undergraduate access server) most of the day and is primarily
used for email. I suspect the problems arise for local deliveries
The /var/adm/messages logs many (100+)
vmunix: task_create() failed for pid 14009: maxuprc (=64) \
exceeded for uid 47.
(the exim user = 47)
However the panic log would show only a very few
0zXq1V-00086r-00 Failed to create child process to send failure message
Given that we are running Digital-Unix with C2 it isn't obvious to me
whether the failure was with the parent daemon exim (in which case mail
gets queued and re-tried later) or if it is a userland process and was
a child process which took on the exim id or audit id, etc. The more I
look at it the more I think it is a problem when user .forwards require
an address_pipe transport.
We have to use the 'use_shell' option to handle .forward/.procmailrc
processes as there are too many users who have old .procmailrc files
after removing .forward's for vacation handling, etc. but I thought
those would have been the user's uid not exim?
Is there a setting which could limit the number of userforward/address_pipe
forked processes?
Any tips or ideas as to how to post-mortem the problem are gratefully
received.
It would have been useful if the errors also logged the PPID but they
aren't logged.
At least it doesn't happen very often (except twice yesterday but only
six more weeks before the undergrads go away again :-) )
Thanks
Neil
--
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