sendmail default queue settings - SendMail

In article <1177689377.924263.265600@s33g2000prh.googlegroups.com>
Tester <calinguga@netscape.net> writes:
>Is it possible to find out what are the default sendmail 8.13.8
>default max queued messages settings?
>Like in case if I end up with too many messages in the queue how can I
>increase that?

There is no limit on that.

>Also what is the meaning of the following messages in the maillog:
>"stat= sent > queued mail for delivery" was it sent to remote mail
>server or queued?
>"stat =Deferred Connection timed out with ..." is remote server not
>available, why?
>"stat=Deferred : 421-:

Please cut&paste the messages verbatim from the log rather than typing
them in from memory or whatever it is you're doing, sendmail won't log
such garbled messages. At a guess, the first one is the *remote* saying
"queued mail for delivery"; for the second it means exactly what it
says, sendmail has no way of knowing why the connection timed out - if
you have network problems, use an appropriate tool like tcpdump to
diagnose; the last one is garbled beyond any attempt at parsing.

--Per Hedeland
per@hedeland.org

On Apr 27, 3:19 pm, p...@hedeland.org (Per Hedeland) wrote:
> In article <1177689377.924263.265...@s33g2000prh.googlegroups.com>
>
> Tester <caling...@netscape.net> writes:
> >Is it possible to find out what are the default sendmail 8.13.8
> >default max queued messages settings?
> >Like in case if I end up with too many messages in the queue how can I
> >increase that?
>
> There is no limit on that.
>
> >Also what is the meaning of the following messages in the maillog:
> >"stat= sent > queued mail for delivery" was it sent to remote mail
> >server or queued?
> >"stat =Deferred Connection timed out with ..." is remote server not
> >available, why?
> >"stat=Deferred : 421-:
>
> Please cut&paste the messages verbatim from the log rather than typing
> them in from memory or whatever it is you're doing, sendmail won't log
> such garbled messages. At a guess, the first one is the *remote* saying
> "queued mail for delivery"; for the second it means exactly what it
> says, sendmail has no way of knowing why the connection timed out - if
> you have network problems, use an appropriate tool like tcpdump to
> diagnose; the last one is garbled beyond any attempt at parsing.
>
> --Per Hedeland
> p...@hedeland.org

Hi there,

Here are the headers.
Apr 25 11:08:57 emailserver sendmail[1923]: l3PF88cm001733:
to=John_Doe@yahoo.ca,

delay=00:00:25, xdelay=00:00:25, mailer=esmtp, pri=121280,
relay=mailserver.yahoo.com. [IP

address], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: 451 Message temporarily deferred -
[190]


Apr 25 11:22:21 emailserver sendmail[4242]: l3PF3gw7001688:
to=<John_Doe@netscape.net>,

ctladdr=<root@emailserver.domain.com> (0/0), delay=00:18:39,
xdelay=00:00:27, mailer=esmtp,

pri=210288, relay=mailserver.aol.com. [IP address], dsn=4.0.0,
stat=Deferred: 421-:

(DYN:T1) http://postmaster.aol.com/errors/421dynt1.html

Apr 25 12:38:35 emailserver sendmail[4442]: l3PGEZmx004440:
to=<John_Does@hotmail.com>,

ctladdr=<root@emailserver.domain.com> (0/0), delay=00:24:00,
xdelay=00:24:00, mailer=esmtp,

pri=120287, relay=mail.hotmail.com. [IP address], dsn=4.0.0,
stat=Deferred: Connection timed

out with email.hotmail.com.

Can you tell me please what is MaxQueueRunSize and MaxDaemonChildren
settings?
Thanks a lot, T

In article <1177703059.468157.309580@b40g2000prd.googlegroups.com>
Tester <calinguga@netscape.net> writes:
>On Apr 27, 3:19 pm, p...@hedeland.org (Per Hedeland) wrote:
>>
>> Please cut&paste the messages verbatim from the log rather than typing
>> them in from memory or whatever it is you're doing, sendmail won't log
>> such garbled messages. At a guess, the first one is the *remote* saying
>> "queued mail for delivery"; for the second it means exactly what it
>> says, sendmail has no way of knowing why the connection timed out - if
>> you have network problems, use an appropriate tool like tcpdump to
>> diagnose; the last one is garbled beyond any attempt at parsing.
>
>Here are the headers.
>Apr 25 11:08:57 emailserver sendmail[1923]: l3PF88cm001733:
>to=John_Doe@yahoo.ca,
>
>delay=00:00:25, xdelay=00:00:25, mailer=esmtp, pri=121280,
>relay=mailserver.yahoo.com. [IP
>
>address], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: 451 Message temporarily deferred -
>[190]

As I guessed, this is the remote responding with a "temporary failure"
(4xx) type of reply/message, sendmail can only queue the message and try
again later. Guessing further, it might be doing greylisting, but you'd
have to ask yahoo to get a definitive answer.

>Apr 25 11:22:21 emailserver sendmail[4242]: l3PF3gw7001688:
>to=<John_Doe@netscape.net>,
>
>ctladdr=<root@emailserver.domain.com> (0/0), delay=00:18:39,
>xdelay=00:00:27, mailer=esmtp,
>
>pri=210288, relay=mailserver.aol.com. [IP address], dsn=4.0.0,
>stat=Deferred: 421-:
>
>(DYN:T1) http://postmaster.aol.com/errors/421dynt1.html

Likewise it's the remote giving a temporary failure, but they're kind
enough to point you to an URL for explanation - go read the page.

>Apr 25 12:38:35 emailserver sendmail[4442]: l3PGEZmx004440:
>to=<John_Does@hotmail.com>,
>
>ctladdr=<root@emailserver.domain.com> (0/0), delay=00:24:00,
>xdelay=00:24:00, mailer=esmtp,
>
>pri=120287, relay=mail.hotmail.com. [IP address], dsn=4.0.0,
>stat=Deferred: Connection timed
>
>out with email.hotmail.com.

And this is a network problem like I said - the TCP/IP stack in your
kernel attempted to establish a TCP connection to the remote on
sendmail's behalf, but didn't succeed within some "reasonable" time (it
varies depending on your OS, but should be at least 1 minute). The
reason could be simply that the remote host is down, but a firewall
blocking access from your IP address will typically give the same
result.

>Can you tell me please what is MaxQueueRunSize and MaxDaemonChildren
>settings?

From doc/op/op.* in the distribution:

MaxQueueRunSize=N
[no short name] The maximum number of jobs
that will be processed in a single queue
run. If not set, there is no limit on the
size. If you have very large queues or a
very short queue run interval this could be
unstable. However, since the first N jobs
in queue directory order are run (rather
than the N highest priority jobs) this
should be set as high as possible to avoid
"losing" jobs that happen to fall late in
the queue directory.

MaxDaemonChildren=N
[no short name] If set, sendmail will refuse
connections when it has more than N children
processing incoming mail or automatic queue
runs. This does not limit the number of
outgoing connections. If the default Deliv-
eryMode (background) is used, then sendmail
may create an almost unlimited number of
children (depending on the number of trans-
actions and the relative execution times of
mail receiption and mail delivery). If the
limit should be enforced, then a Delivery-
Mode other than background must be used. If
not set, there is no limit to the number of
children -- that is, the system load average
controls this.


--Per Hedeland
per@hedeland.org