Re: Old song - timeouts

[VIP Lists Account <viplists@vip.maestro.com.pl>]

On Tue, 21 Jul 1998 mea@nic.funet.fi wrote:

> > problem? I have described it already two or three times, but here's what
> > it's all about:
> 
>   Your problem was one of the reasons I rearranged my schedules.
Glad to hear that ;-)

> > increases with the message size - the larger the message the more sure is
> > the timeout. It all started to happen ever since I installed the s5
> > release of zmailer. Now running s7, but it still timeouts... Well, I don't
> > know zmailer sources well enough to find the reason, but maybe you will be
> > able to help me out? The problem is that also VERY important servers (like
> > netspace.org or mail2.redhat.com, rootshell) are timing out...
> 
>   Lets try to see what happens.  Your system is Solaris ?
Nope. It's Linux.

> Which version ? (2.5.*, 2.6.* ?)    ZMailer 2.99.50-s7 ?
2.0.35, zmailer 2.99.50-s7

> Add "D" at  $MAILSHARE/smtpserver.conf  at each pattern:
> 	\[*\]	999 veD
> 	*	999 veRD
> 
> Then restart the smtpserver.
Done.

> Now input timeouts will cause spool-files to be kept in the
> spool (at $POSTOFFICE/public/ directory) when normally they
> are destroyed with "mail_abort()".
> 
> You will recognize the cases with filenames of type:
> 	1234.DATA-EOF
> 	1234.SMTP-TIMEOUT
> 
> Now, which happen ?
Both of them. 95% are timeouts, the rest premature DATA EOFs

> What the smtpserver log tells about these sessions on which these
> messages were received (sorry, no easy way to identify process ids
Attached are typical examples of what happens. Both timeout and eof are 
in this file. I haven't removed the server addresses for the purpose -
perhaps anyone experiences similar problems with them? Only the usernames
were removed to protect their privacy.

> from the spoolfiles.  Propably must try to add a way to log that
> trapped spoolfile name into the log -- or store PID into the spool
> file.. Hmm...)
Hmmm... perhaps add an option to log every smtpserver session to a
separate file named connecting-party.ident.smtpserverpid and leave the
file on disk ONLY if the session fails for some reason.

BTW. I noticed that changing the timeout values in smtpserver.h doesn't
help a single bit. That precisely (and a quick look at the smtpserver
code) gave me the idea that there must be something wrong with the alarm()
usage. Don't you think that it would be better to use some form of virtual
timing (e.g. by virtualizing timers with setitimer?)
28767#	connection from caldera.com ipcnt 1 ident: NO-IDENT-SERVICE[2]
28767w	220 vip.maestro.com.pl ZMailer Server 2.99.50-s7 #1 ESMTP+IDENT ready at Tue, 21 Jul 1998 17:13:31 +0200
28767#	remote from [207.179.18.1]:32801
28767r	HELO caldera.caldera.com
28767w	250 vip.maestro.com.pl expected "HELO caldera.com"
28767r	MAIL FROM:<username@caldera.com>
28767w	250 2.1.0 Sender syntax Ok
28767r	RCPT TO:<username@vip.maestro.com.pl>
28767w	250 2.1.5 Recipient address syntax Ok
28767r	DATA
28767w	354 Start mail input; end with <CRLF>.<CRLF>
28767-	aborted (1240 bytes): SMTP protocol timed out
------ CUT HERE -------
28770#	connection from top.abc-web.com ipcnt 1 ident: NO-IDENT-SERVICE[2]
28770w	220 vip.maestro.com.pl ZMailer Server 2.99.50-s7 #1 ESMTP+IDENT ready at Tue, 21 Jul 1998 17:16:46 +0200
28770#	remote from [209.81.4.132]:47629
28770r	HELO eureka.abc-web.com
28770w	250 vip.maestro.com.pl expected "HELO top.abc-web.com"
28770r	MAIL FROM:<eureka-return-0-username=vip.maestro.com.pl@eureka.abc-web.com>
28770w	250 2.1.0 Sender syntax Ok
28770r	RCPT TO:<username@vip.maestro.com.pl>
28770w	250 2.1.5 Recipient address syntax Ok
28770r	DATA
28770w	354 Start mail input; end with <CRLF>.<CRLF>
28770-	aborted (1307 bytes): premature EOF on DATA input
----- CUT HERE ------ from the postoffice/public dir
external
rcvdfrom its.wlkp.top.pl ([195.117.73.3]:25608 "EHLO its.wlkp.top.pl" ident: "root")
with ESMTP
identinfo root
from <username@wlkp.top.pl>
todsn ORCPT=rfc822;username@vip.maestro.com.pl
to <username@vip.maestro.com.pl>
env-end
------ CUT HERE --------
external
rcvdfrom marlin.onet.pl ([194.204.188.125]:53864 "EHLO marlin.onet.pl" ident: "NO-IDENT-SERVICE[2]")
with ESMTP
identinfo NO-IDENT-SERVICE[2]
channel error
todsn ORCPT=rfc822;username@komputronik.com.pl
to <username@komputronik.com.pl>
env-end
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	Mon, 20 Jul 1998 18:58:59 +0200