Qmail (Default Mail Server for Plesk) on Plesk 9.0 sometime start consuming high CPU and overloading server. This sometime happens due to lot of failed message to ‘postmaster’ which overload Qmail. Following is the header of the failed message:
From: MAILER-DAEMON@server.mail.com
To: postmaster@server.mail.com
Subject: failure notice
Date: 10 Apr 2010 02:49:00 +0100
Size: 17540794 bytes
Queue Time: 1270864142 sec
Envelope Recipients (R): webmaster@somedomain.com
To: postmaster@server.mail.com
Subject: failure notice
Date: 10 Apr 2010 02:49:00 +0100
Size: 17540794 bytes
Queue Time: 1270864142 sec
Envelope Recipients (R): webmaster@somedomain.com
In order to fix the problem, please execute following command from the Shell of the Server (root):
[root@support007 ~]# /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/autoinstaller –select-release-current –install-component base
This will install few micro-updates for Plesk which fix postmaster issues. After that use /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/mailqueuemng utility to delete messages from qmail queue.
Now the server load will be under control and there will be no failed messages in queue.
[root@vps1846 ~]# /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/mailqueuemng -s
Messages in local queue: 0
Messages in remote queue: 0
Messages in todo queue: 0
Messages total: 0
Messages found: 0
Timestamp: 1270864534
Messages in local queue: 0
Messages in remote queue: 0
Messages in todo queue: 0
Messages total: 0
Messages found: 0
Timestamp: 1270864534
Related posts:
Milind Koyande is the Senior Research Engineer and his job is to work with new technologies, specially Cloud Computing / Virtualization Technology. His past projects include Government Sector initiatives, Backup and Disaster Recovery Solutions. Follow him on 
Tweets that mention High CPU Usage by Qmail (Plesk 9.x) | -- Topsy.com
on May 20th, 2010
@ 1:15 pm:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by eITWebguru, Milind Mohan Koyande. Milind Mohan Koyande said: High CPU Usage by Qmail (Plesk 9.x): Qmail (Default Mail Server for Plesk) on Plesk 9.0 sometime start consuming h… http://bit.ly/aTOj3p [...]