1600+ 'postfix-queue' processes - OK to have this many?

Posted by atomicguava on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by atomicguava
Published on 2012-08-30T13:05:39Z Indexed on 2012/09/08 15:40 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 231

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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.

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