Description of Problem: For some unknown reason, sendmail occasionally (days weeks in between) starts to reject connections: Sep 25 19:45:42 pop sendmail[23360]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 12 I have a standard sendmail configuration as it comes from Red Hat. Sendmail only listens to the localhost interface. Besides, my ipchains blocks any access from the outside. The rejections continue and after a couple of hours, the system is hosed: Sep 25 22:23:37 pop sendmail[23360]: runqueue: Skipping queue run -- load average too high Sep 25 22:23:42 pop sendmail[23360]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 83 Unable to create new processes, so only way out is a power cycled reboot. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): sendmail-8.11.6-1.7.1 How Reproducible: Random Steps to Reproduce: 1. Don't know 2. 3. Actual Results: Expected Results: Additional Information:
There is a load limit and sendmail won't accept/deliver email if it is too high. So looks like normal behaviour. Florian La Roche
How can the load limit be reached when my system is under no load at all. No emails being handled except for maybe 1 or 2 an hour? This is a home system with just a very few users. And sendmail is not accessible for email reception from the outside as all outside connections are firewalled. I use POP to fetch emails. Please explain!