On Fri, Sep 10, 1999 at 12:00:45PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote > > I've recently installed a system with Slink, and set it up as > a mail hub for our domain. We also run a type of mailing list > from another box, which our mail hub acts as a smarthost for. > > However, when the mailing list sends out email (anywhere from > 1-2 thousand at once), after a number of successful deliveries, > the mail hub stops accepting connections on port 25. > > In order to send any more, I have to kill -HUP inetd. > > Here's the smtp line in /etc/inetd.conf: > smtp stream tcp nowait mail /usr/sbin/exim exim -bs > > > Anybody know what I can do to correct this problem, other than > slowing down how fast the mailing list sends out email? >
Probably, inetd is limitting the rate at which smtpd sessions are initiated; by default, inetd only allows 40 connections to a service per minute. Your options appear to be: 1. Raise the limit imposed by inetd, by editing the line for exim to read, e.g., smtp stream tcp nowait.200 mail /usr/sbin/exim exim -bs 2. Persuade your mailing list software to use batched smtp so that several (all?) deliveries may be requested on a single connection, 3. Limit the rate at which your mailing list software connects to port 25, 4. Run exim as a stand-alone daemon, which then allows you to control smtp service based on the number of concurrent sessions or the system load average, rather than on the rate at which connections are made. Personally I prefer number 4, possibly combined with 2 or 3. To run exim 'stand-alone' comment out the line near the top of /etc/init.d/exim that reads exit 0 and then run /etc/init.d/exim start as root. On my systems, I also change the options that exim is run with from "-bd -q30m" to just "-bd", as the queue is already run periodically from cron. To control smtp connections when exim runs stand-alone, look at the following exim configuration options: smtp_accept_max smtp_connect_backlog smtp_load_reserve You may also want to look at the queue_smtp directive, which may improve the efficiency with which mail is actually delivered to remote hosts. John P. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Oh - I - you know - my job is to fear everything." - Bill Gates in Denmark