HPUX 10.2 error message

[Carla Breuer]

Hello!
I have been getting an error message on the main console for about 6 months or so. The message is:
JUL 30 08:27:48 sys000 sendmail[769]: NOQUEUE: low on space (have 0, SMTP-DAEMON needs 101 in /var/spool/mqueue)
When I run a bdf command /var is at 47%.
/var/spool/mqueue is empty.
This error has not had any impact on productivity, but I would love to make it go away. I have had several techies look into it with no luck. Can anybody help point me in the right direction?
We are running HP-UX 10.2 on HP9000 H50. I would appreciate any input at all.

Thanx,

Carla

[Hai Nguyen_1]

Carla,

Can you still send and receive mail? What are the modebit, owner and groupid of /var/spool/mqueue?

Hai

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Carla,

What are the permissions on the dir /var/spool/mqueue?
They should be 755 bin:bin.

Also check the /etc/mail/sendmail.cf file - specifically the following line
O QueueDirectory=/var/spool/mqueue
make sure that indeed you're using /var/spool/mqueue as the queue dir.

You also want to check that nothing/nobody is sending anything huge through you that could be filling /var/spool/mqueue.
Check the following entry in sendmail.cf
O MaxMessageSize=1000000
If it's commented out then there is NO size limit. If it's huge, larger than what /var has available then again this could be causing the msg. Edit it down to a reasonable size & bounce sendmail.

Finally, I'd bounce sendmail. Actually I'd stop it & make sure all instances are gone & nothing else is spawning a sendmail session.
Then restart it

/sbin/init.d/sendmail stop
/sbin/init.d/sendmail start

Rgds,
Jeff

[Carla Breuer]

I'm not sure if I'm answering you right, but I'll try. I am not a sysadmin. I am a programmer / analyst. We do not have a sysadmin here. The permissions on the file are drwxr-xr-x. I am able to send and receive mail. I am attaching a print screen of my ll command in /var/spool. If you need more info, please help me with the command(s) needed to get the info for you.

[Hai Nguyen_1]

Carla,

Can you post the output of the following command:

# bdf /var

And attach your /etc/mail/sendmail.cf to this post.

Hai

[Hai Nguyen_1]

Carla,

your /var/spool/mqueue looks right.

Instead of posting your /etc/mail/sendmail.cf, can you run and post the output of the two commands below:

# bdf /var
# grep MinFree /etc/mail/sendmail.cf

Remember to type in MinFree exactly as it looks here.

Hai

[Jeff Schussele · Accepted solution]

OK Carla,

The permissions & ownership on /var/spool/mqueue look good.

Another thing I forgot to ask is - How big is /var? What value is under the kbytes column in that bdf output?
It's still possible that a large e-mail is filling the queue dir up. If this happens sendmail will discard the msg, I believe. But it still kicks out an error message.

You should check sendmail's log - by default it's
/var/adm/syslog/mail.log
Relate the time in the console msg to the mail.log. I suspect you'll find that it's some rogue, large email that's doing this to you.
You should also check the system's log - it's
/var/adm/syslog/syslog.log
Check it to see if there are any entries stating that /var has filled up. You'll have to relate the LV to the directory - it'll look like /dev/vg00/lvolX. Where X will be a decimal number.

To check the sendmail.cf file do the following
cd /etc/mail
grep QueueDirectory sendmail.cf
Enter that as shown cap Q & D
The return should look like
O QueueDirectory=/var/spool/mqueue
If it states another directory, then you need to check the space available in that filesystem.
To check the max msg size - same thing
grep MaxMessageSize sendmail.cf
Output should look like
O MaxMessageSize=1000000
Also check for the following - MinFree - as follows:
grep MinFree sendmail.cf
If it's value is 100 (default) or less & /var is almost full (< 50 KB free) then sendmail will reject it & log the msg you see.
But that begs the question as to what's filling /var?

If large emails are eating your space up, set the MaxMessageSize to a sane size (1 Mb?) & sendmail will reject those huge emails.

HTH,
Jeff

[Carla Breuer]

Hello Again!
the bdf for /var is:
kbytes used avail %used Mounted on
716800 326318 366355 %47 /var

You guys have given me a lot to look at. I will try to get to the other ideas tomorrow. I'm sure there will be some points to follow...The techies all scratched their heads and had no suggestions. No points for Tech support! I think you guys are on to something here!

Thank you!

Carla