Re: [cobalt-security] Sendmail - (was: SHP flaw)

[Michael Stauber <cobalt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Paul,

> I have noticed that sendmail will shut it's self down under heavy load...
> why is that?

That's due to this two lines in your sendmail.cf configuration file:

# load average at which we just queue messages
O QueueLA=15

# load average at which we refuse connections
O RefuseLA=20

So when the load average hits 15, then no more emails will be accepted for 
delivery (until the load drops again) and only mails still sitting in the 
queue and waiting to be sent out will be attempted to deliver to their remote 
destination(s).

Once the load average hits 20 Sendmail stops entirely until the load drops 
back below that level.

FWIW: You might want to ask such questions on the user-list as it's not 
exactly security related.

-- 

With best regards,

Michael Stauber
mstauber@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Unix/Linux Support Engineer