Mail issue with both qmail & postfix

**srichards** · #1 (**permalink**) 07-10-2009, 10:49

Qmail has been running ok until the 9.2.1 update then randomly it decides to hog the entire cpu and make the vps unusable for me and anyone on the same node. I have been complaining about the problem for a while as obviously I find it unfair that I have my vps switched off due to a bug with parallels/plesk software and that bug also affects others. I have now been without email since Sunday night due to this happening again. Postfix has been installed by your good selves as suggested on the parallels support forum but it doesn't work. I asked whether someone could write a simple script just to restart qmail when the load average crept up or it had started too many process and tidy up after it but received no answer. Surely this is the simplest solution if plesk/parallels haven't fixed the problem and postfix just doesn't seem to work. Qmail worked most of the time but became ropey at intervals. At least it actually mostly delivered mail on time.

I have had no received email service since Monday afternoon. The mail that I see just goes straight into the deferred queue and is never delivered. I am losing mail now. Some of which may be important but I'll never know. There were several hundred messages in there last night and today they've all disappeared but I have not received them! I can send it but don't receive any which rather defeats the purpose.

I am hoping that someone on here might actually know enough about postfix email systems to fix the issue.

DNS shouldn't be the problem as the original settings worked ok with qmail apart from places that did certain reverse lookups. I can send ok so again dns is unlikely. /var/spool/postfix is showing activity that suggests that mail is appearing and is moving around like it should but it is the delivery part that is broken. All email seems to have an age of 14524 days which seems very odd to me when fresh arrivals ie within the last hour obtain that age.

Has anyone any idea how to fix it?!

Rock · #2 (**permalink**) 07-10-2009, 22:57

Hi,

Could you please provide the exact messages/errors/warnings [from the server logs] when using Postfix? If emails were working fine when using Qmail, the switch to Postfix wouldn't be of any problem unless Postfix is installed improperly. You can switch back to Qmail & have the process niced [ie. Run the command with an adjusted niceness, which affects process scheduling.] making it use less system resources..

Plesk control panel [specially 9.2.1 version] leaves most of people helpless as it has very few options for manual operations, & by chance any of such changes are made [reinstalling the applications' RPMs, etc], it simply breaks itself. If you don't have much domain's hosted on your VPS at the moment then I'd recommend getting it reinstalled with a former version, ie: 8.6 or 9.0.

More importantly, as you're losing emails now, I'd strongly recommend having the MX priority changed/adjusted for your domains, such that they use Gmail or any other provider & are delivered to them. Please contact our live chat support for having these changed/setup ASAP [until we get your email services working back to normal from your own VPS].

I've one more suggest of going for a cPanel control panel instead of Plesk, as debugging & sorting such issues are a common thing for our VPS experts, when on a cPanel control panel

**srichards** · #3 (**permalink**) 07-10-2009, 23:24

Hi.

There don't seem to be any errors in the logfiles to speak of! "error: no such column: cmusaslsecretCRAM-MD5" Is the only postfix related error. That is for the main mailbox but none of the others. The /var/log/messages file as above only contains that postfix related error. Nothing on start up or termination of the service. Maillog in /var/log is empty.

postconf -n gives:

alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases, hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/aliases
command_directory = /usr/sbin
config_directory = /etc/postfix
daemon_directory = /usr/libexec/postfix
debug_peer_level = 2
html_directory = no
inet_interfaces = all
mail_owner = postfix
mailq_path = /usr/bin/mailq.postfix
manpage_directory = /usr/share/man
message_size_limit = 71680000
mydestination = localhost.$mydomain, localhost, localhost.localdomain
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 127.0.0.1/32 92.48.85.11/32 92.48.85.12/32, hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/poplock
newaliases_path = /usr/bin/newaliases.postfix
queue_directory = /var/spool/postfix
readme_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.2.10/README_FILES
sample_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.2.10/samples
sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail.postfix
setgid_group = postdrop
smtp_send_xforward_command = yes
smtp_use_tls = no
smtpd_authorized_xforward_hosts = 127.0.0.0/8
smtpd_client_restrictions = reject_rbl_client sbl.spamhaus.org, reject_rbl_client bl.spamcop.net
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, check_client_access pcre:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/no_relay.re, permit_sasl_authenticated, reject_unauth_destination
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtpd_sender_restrictions = check_sender_access hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/blacklists, permit_sasl_authenticated, check_client_access pcre:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/non_auth.re
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/postfix_default.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = $smtpd_tls_cert_file
smtpd_use_tls = yes
transport_maps = hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/transport
unknown_local_recipient_reject_code = 550
virtual_alias_maps = $virtual_maps, hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/virtual
virtual_gid_maps = static:31
virtual_mailbox_base = /var/qmail/mailnames
virtual_mailbox_domains = $virtual_mailbox_maps, hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/virtual_domains
virtual_mailbox_maps = hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/vmailbox
virtual_transport = plesk_virtual
virtual_uid_maps = static:110

Running qmail niced wasn't even suggested. Should have thought of that as it would be a simple fix. Set to -19 and it will only run in the idle loop so won't be able to take over the machine.

Postfix seems to be working but not doing the local delivery as I can send email fine. The senior admins have been looking at it for days but no joy yet.

I don't like cpanel at all which is why I tend to use plesk

I did try a sendmail -bt, it emails it to root but there isn't a root user mailbox in /var/mail. Not sure where else to look to find it. Don't get any sign of 'new mail' when logged in as root via ssh which I would expect.

I'll suggest they put it back to qmail and nice it. It's the only way forward for now. I don't have any other mail host I can use.

Thanks for your help.

**srichards** · #4 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 09:49

Qmail is back on but the situation is worse than before. Mail is just bouncing instantly now. Don't see anything in the queue at all. Sigh.

**vzAddict** · #5 (**permalink**) 09-10-2009, 07:26

Hello,

Qmail handlers were broken on your VPS which was blocking incoming emails. I have removed the broken handlers and re-created them and now emails are working fine on your VPS.

Kindly let us know if we can assist you further.

**srichards** · #6 (**permalink**) 09-10-2009, 09:54

Thanks for getting qmail working again. But what will happen about the qmail going bananas issue??? I'm not having my vps being turned off and having to fight to get it turned back on again. I've been without working mail since Monday due to an issue I have raised on several occasions which hasn't been addressed. There is something wrong with qmail which swsoft need to sort out or which someone here needs just to either make sure qmail is run nice'd or there is a script to check load which tidies up after qmail.

Can someone assure me that any of the above is being done and I won't just find my vps turned off and the email with all the information about the whys and wherefores being sent to a vps hosted domain email address which is obviously not going to reach me?!

**srichards** · #7 (**permalink**) 09-10-2009, 09:56

Thanks for getting qmail working again. But what will happen about the qmail going bananas issue??? I'm not having my vps being turned off and having to fight to get it turned back on again. I've been without working mail since Monday due to an issue I have raised on several occasions which hasn't been addressed. There is something wrong with qmail which swsoft need to sort out or which someone here needs just to either make sure qmail is run nice'd or there is a script to check load which tidies up after qmail.

Can someone assure me that any of the above is being done and I won't just find my vps turned off and the email with all the information about the whys and wherefores being sent to a vps hosted domain email address which is obviously not going to reach me?!

PS this forum software is also broken as I'm always getting an error message about how I have to wait 30 seconds to post when I haven't posted a thing!

PPS it's posted this last one twice. I had an error the first time about the 30 second timeout but it seems to have posted it anyway. Unless it is a cacheing issue with firefox showing me the error page instead of the correctly posted page.