1600+ 'postfix-queue' processes - OK to have this many?
- by atomicguava
I have a Plesk 9.5.4 CentOS server running Postfix. I had been having massive problems with the mailq being full of 'double-bounce' email messages containing errors relating to 'Queue File Write Error', but I believe these are now fixed thanks to this thread.
My new problem is that when I run top, I can see lots of processes called 'postfix-queue' and have fairly high load:
top - 13:59:44 up 6 days, 21:14, 1 user, load average: 2.33, 2.19, 1.96
Tasks: 1743 total, 1 running, 1742 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 5.1%us, 8.8%sy, 0.0%ni, 85.3%id, 0.8%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 3145728k total, 1950640k used, 1195088k free, 0k buffers
Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 0k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1324 apache 16 0 344m 33m 5664 S 21.7 1.1 0:03.17 httpd
32443 apache 15 0 350m 36m 6864 S 14.4 1.2 0:13.83 httpd
1678 root 15 0 13948 2568 952 R 2.0 0.1 0:00.37 top
1890 mysql 15 0 689m 318m 7600 S 1.0 10.4 219:45.23 mysqld
1394 apache 15 0 352m 41m 5972 S 0.7 1.3 0:03.91 httpd
1369 apache 15 0 344m 33m 5444 S 0.3 1.1 0:02.03 httpd
1592 apache 15 0 349m 37m 5912 S 0.3 1.2 0:02.52 httpd
1633 apache 15 0 336m 20m 1828 S 0.3 0.7 0:00.01 httpd
1952 root 19 0 335m 28m 10m S 0.3 0.9 1:35.41 httpd
1 root 15 0 10304 732 612 S 0.0 0.0 0:04.41 init
1034 mhandler 15 0 11520 1160 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1036 mhandler 15 0 11516 1120 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1041 mhandler 17 0 11516 1156 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1043 mhandler 15 0 11512 1116 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1063 mhandler 16 0 11516 1160 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1068 mhandler 15 0 11516 1128 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1071 mhandler 17 0 11512 1152 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1072 mhandler 15 0 11512 1116 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1081 mhandler 16 0 11516 1156 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1082 mhandler 15 0 11512 1120 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1089 popuser 15 0 33892 1972 1200 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 pop3d
1116 mhandler 16 0 11516 1164 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1117 mhandler 15 0 11516 1124 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1120 mhandler 16 0 11516 1160 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1121 mhandler 15 0 11512 1120 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1130 mhandler 17 0 11516 1160 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1131 mhandler 15 0 11516 1120 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1149 root 17 -4 12572 680 356 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 udevd
1181 mhandler 16 0 11516 1160 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1183 mhandler 15 0 11512 1116 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1224 mhandler 16 0 11516 1160 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1225 mhandler 15 0 11516 1120 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1228 apache 15 0 345m 34m 5472 S 0.0 1.1 0:04.64 httpd
1241 mhandler 16 0 11516 1156 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1242 mhandler 15 0 11512 1120 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1251 mhandler 17 0 11516 1156 884 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1252 mhandler 15 0 11516 1120 860 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 postfix-queue
1258 apache 15 0 349m 37m 5444 S 0.0 1.2 0:01.28 httpd
When I run ps -Al | grep -c postfix-queue it returns 1618!
My question is this: is this normal or is there something else going wrong with Postfix?
Right now, if I run mailq it is empty, and qshape deferred / qshape active are empty too.
Thanks in advance for your help.
