10/14   ok, WHO is fukcing w/ sendmail? load average is 80+ and there are
        100's of sendmail processes... same thing happend this morning at
        8am EDT. Someone just add some recursive procmail rule or some
        shit? This problem has been happening for a couple weeks but just
        got alot worse.                 - rory
        \_ also ps, is this normal?
           $ mailq | wc -l
           26070
           \_ no one responded to this... isnt this a ridiculously high
              number of messages to have queued on our system? w/ ~100
              users and a reasonable load?              - rory
              \_ Yes, it is.  Mail on soda ... is fucked.  No one currently
                 working on soda has the sendmail fu to fix this issue -
                 apparently it has something to do with forged headers
                 and virus emails.  It is not clear that the hardware plan
                 will fix the problem.  My advice is to use !soda for all
                 important email from now on.
        \_ I... want... an... upgrade...     -the soda machine
           \_ Faster hardware is not the answer to bad configurations or
              poor programming.  Unless you work for MS.
              \_ Soda's sendmail is completely fux0red.  I don't believe anyone
                 on current politburo knows how to unfux0r it.  Sendmail is
                 a dark art that has not been passed on to the younger
                 generation, apparently.  The new hardware will simply cause
                 the problem to expand to fill it.
                 \_ It's more that email in general is fux0red.  The sendmail
                    flurries are because of spam storms.  This is made worse
                    by rampant use of SA on a mainly user-centric box.  Offload
                    this task onto another server more or less dedicated to
                    mail handling and this problem will be mollified.
                    \_ I emailed pburo about this a while ago (I am sure the
                       others have also).  The response I got is that
                       'they are working on something.'  I was under the
                       impression they had a plan to offload spam filtering
                       to scotch or another machine or something.  I don't
                       think that's happening though. -- ilyas
                       \_ Yes, the plan is to move mail processing to scotch,
                          but that will not happen until we get a new scotch.
                          I am told that last time we tried moving over mail
                          processing to scotch (a Vectra), the poor machine
                          fell to its knees in no time.  The upgrade plan, as
                          it stands involves not only getting new hardware for
                          both soda and scotch, but moving the mail load over.
                          I know people are going to bitch and moan, but mail
                          processing needs to get off soda.  We're also going
                          to be adding email antivirus options (I think njh
                          has been poking around with ClamAV) to deal with the
                          plethora of attachment-rich virus email. - jvarga
                 \_ alright well what can we do about it? Dont alot more
                    people have root than who are in the politburo? Has
                    politburo come to by synonymous with "soda sys admins"?
                                Thank you for pointing that out _/
                        It was more of a question but thanks _/
                        for the snarky commentary
                    I know very little about sendmail... I'm guessing maybe
                    someone w/ access could look in the logs at when these
                    huge performance spikes are occurring? Is it a regular
                    time daily/weekly? Does it correspond w/ mail to a
                    \_ Rumor has it that it has something to do with virii and
                         "virii" is not a word.  The word you were _/
                         looking for is "viruses"
                       spoofed Reply-To: headers that aren't being properly
                       dealt with, but I know nothing for sure.
                    certain user? Does a procmail problem seem like a
                    certain user? Does procmail problem seem like a
                    possible candidate?                 - rory
                    \_ We are busy testing NFS. Thanx! -politburo!
                       \_ NFS for mailspools?  yeesh...
        \_ On the subject of mail, weren't people supposed to use spamc
           for spamassassin? I see a whole lot of "perl spamassassin" jobs.
           A conservative antivirus thing would be good. Also, on the scotch
           subject, is that "dual Xeon" choice just an imperial fiat? It
           doesn't seem to be under any debate (hint: use AMD).
           \_ No no, by all means, use Xeons.  It will be so fun when Soda
              melts a hole in the machine room wall.
              \_ Uh, yeah.  I own AMD stock and no Intel, but really.  Let's
                 be rational about this.