decwrl

[Paul Vixie]

Mike at hubcap wrote:

# Hi there. I just noticed that any mail to decwrl is stacking up on my
# system... 
# 
# ``451 can't open database 'E' [/usr/lib/mail/uuexcep]: File table overflow''
# 
# is the error they are returning. That's ENFILE... they must be real busy!
# 
# At any rate, since so many people from dec read this group, and since there's
# some possibility that decwrl is broken and they haven't realized it yet...
# 
# -Mike

Decwrl's internet link is a microwave, which got flakey, such that 40% of
all packets sent over it did not arrive on the other end.  The routing
protocols are fairly robust about this, which means they didn't time out.
Most TCP connections, however, hung completely or went very slowly.  Our
sendmail will keep forking more deliveries until the loadav is very high;
hundreds of hung TCP connections use up lots of file- and process-table
slots but do not contribute to the load average.

All this while I'm on the east coast, no less.  We've switched to our
Alternet link, until I can come back and debug the microwave; I'm also
going to teach KJS that high load average is not the only reason to 
queue (rather than deliver) mail.

Cheers,

--
Paul Vixie
DEC Western Research Lab	<vixie at wrl.dec.com>
Palo Alto, California		...!decwrl!vixie