[exim] Why does exim keep retrying?

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Author: Robin Powell (from phone)
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: [exim] Why does exim keep retrying?
(my apologies to the mods for the dupe; I wasn't subscribed the first time,
so not sure if the first one simply got tossed)

I run some fairly high volume mailing lists for http://nacba.org/
, a bunch of *VERY* talkative lawyers; despite it being a private,
member-only mailing list to a professional organization that costs
money to join, this one server pushes ~130k mails a day.

So, despite the crazy logs you're going to see, and the actual
problem I'm having, I swear as a 20 year sysadmin that to the best
of my knowledge, this is all ham.

With that out of the way, google sometimes blocks us, presumably due
to volume. :)

I've told exim that when it gets a 421 error (google's "shut up
you're spam" error) it should stop trying that host for 12 hours.
(Which, you'll note, is not how a spammer would try to solve this
problem, in case you didn't believe me before :).

What I'm seeing in the logs is retries *several times a second*.

Not cool.

There are 3000+ retry database entries for *every* gmail IP, AFAICT.

It's insane. I'm doing something very wrong, and I don't know why.

When a 421 comes in, I want mail to that host to just *stop*, for
the full 12 hours.

Config:


# slow down when google is upset
*                      data_421    F,7d,12h
gmail.com              *           F,2h,15m; G,16h,1h,1.5; F,999d,6h
google.com             *           F,2h,15m; G,16h,1h,1.5; F,999d,6h
googlemail.com         *           F,2h,15m; G,16h,1h,1.5; F,999d,6h
yahoo.com              *           F,2h,15m; G,16h,1h,1.5; F,999d,6h
*                      *           F,2h,15m; G,16h,1h,1.5; F,4d,6h



Example delivery failures:


2013-08-30 19:04:32 1VFVcT-0000xd-UL SMTP error from remote mail server
after end of data: host alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com [173.194.76.26]:
421-4.7.0 [208.100.29.105      10] Our system has detected an unusual rate
of\n421-4.7.0 unsolicited mail originating from your IP address. To protect
our\n421-4.7.0 users from spam, mail sent from your IP address has been
temporarily\n421-4.7.0 blocked. Please visit
http://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.html\n421 4.7.0 to review our
Bulk Email Senders Guidelines. x3si198812qed.106 - gsmtp
2013-08-30 19:04:32 1VFYMq-0004EK-8e SMTP error from remote mail server
after end of data: host alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com [173.194.76.26]:
421-4.7.0 [208.100.29.105      10] Our system has detected an unusual rate
of\n421-4.7.0 unsolicited mail originating from your IP address. To protect
our\n421-4.7.0 users from spam, mail sent from your IP address has been
temporarily\n421-4.7.0 blocked. Please visit
http://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.html\n421 4.7.0 to review our
Bulk Email Senders Guidelines. x4si297628qar.157 - gsmtp
2013-08-30 19:04:32 1VFU91-0000Sw-C2 SMTP error from remote mail server
after end of data: host alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com [173.194.76.26]:
421-4.7.0 [208.100.29.105      10] Our system has detected an unusual rate
of\n421-4.7.0 unsolicited mail originating from your IP address. To protect
our\n421-4.7.0 users from spam, mail sent from your IP address has been
temporarily\n421-4.7.0 blocked. Please visit
http://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.html\n421 4.7.0 to review our
Bulk Email Senders Guidelines. fx10si199650qeb.103 - gsmtp



Example retry entries for that host (there are thousands):

30-Aug-2013 13:36:39  30-Aug-2013 13:36:39  31-Aug-2013 01:36:39
  T:aspmx2.googlemail.com:173.194.76.26:1VF7El-0002Wk-9D -46 5453 SMTP
error from remote mail server after end of data: host
ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.com[173.194.76.26]: 421-4.7.0 [208.100.29.105
10] Our system has de
--
30-Aug-2013 11:31:36  30-Aug-2013 11:31:36  30-Aug-2013 23:31:36
  T:alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com:173.194.76.26:1VFTsk-0004Mg-Oy -46 5453
SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data: host
alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com [173.194.76.26]: 421-4.7.0 [208.100.29.105
     10] Our sys
--
30-Aug-2013 06:05:00  30-Aug-2013 06:05:00  30-Aug-2013 18:05:00
  T:alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com:173.194.76.26:1VFQnf-0007k7-9Q -46 5453
SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data: host
alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com [173.194.76.26]: 421-4.7.0 [208.100.29.105
     10] Our sys
--
30-Aug-2013 16:26:55  30-Aug-2013 16:26:55  31-Aug-2013 04:26:55
  T:alt1.aspmx.l.google.com:173.194.76.26:1VFSvO-0008M3-NB -46 5453 SMTP
error from remote mail server after end of data: host
alt1.aspmx.l.google.com [173.194.76.26]: 421-4.7.0 [208.100.29.105      10]
Our system has


Example retry test:

chi01-042-31:~# exim -brt google.com data_421
Retry rule: * * F,1w,12h;

And here's a complete (unfinished) run for one particular message:

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/6395587/raw/b85fd0e0878be8f5983667373b70804ffe1c8d51/-

Please help.

-Robin