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'spamd' bottleneck after update

vs-fam
Hi, We have noticed, after the latest cPanel update, a unbearable bottleneck caused by 'spamd'. SMTP timeouts while trying to send, RoundCube and the like timing out, etc. Even though we get these errors, most of the time the email does get sent, however, all email clients claim that emails are not sent leaving them on the outgoing tray. The minute we disable all types of SPAM scans, everything goes back to normal. Anyone else seeing these behavior? Thanks

Comments

50 comments

Date Votes
  • HOTNET
    Same problem with my cPanel install. Notification The service "spamd" appears to be down at least twice a day. Mail will not leave the outbox for end users. Time out with email clients. I have applied the "fix". Will update this if post if problem persists. Thanks.

    Today the service "spamd" failing at least once every 6 hours. Recovering automatically after around 10mins.
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  • cPanelMichael
    Today the service "spamd" failing at least once every 6 hours. Recovering automatically after around 10mins.

    Hello :) Have you reviewed the previous response to see if disabling that ruleset makes a difference? Thank you.
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  • HOTNET
    yes, i have disabled the ruleset. No difference.
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  • andryangouw
    I am facing the same problem. Disabled KAM ruleset on WHM but still very slow.
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  • andryangouw
    Fixed the issue by disabling Apache SpamAssassin" ruleset that cPanel uses on cpanel.net. KAM ruleset is still enabled.
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  • andryangouw
    Any update from cPanel on this? Just a random thought, could it be related to systems with IPv6 connectivity?
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  • cdc
    Just chiming in that I had the same issue with spamd crashing (frustrating). Seems to be resolved now by disabling Apache SpamAssassin" ruleset that cPanel uses on cpanel.net as mentioned above. No IPv6 connectivity here.
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  • cPanelMichael
    To update, internal case CPANEL-2723 is still open at this time. Has anyone else, who has not yet posted to this thread, experienced the same problem and resolved it by disabling any of these rulesets? Thank you.
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  • jozeph
    I am facing the same issue. I have been updated to 54.0 but this still...
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  • cPanelMichael
    I am facing the same issue. I have been updated to 54.0 but this still...

    Could you verify which rulesets you disabled to resolve the issue? Note that cPanel version 54 offers no changes for this issue. We are still gathering feedback to determine how to best address the issue. Thank you.
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  • coursevector
    I too am having issues with SPAMD failing on a regular basis. On only one of our 12 VPS. They are all running 11.52 but only one server is failing. Disabled KAM ruleset the other day, still failed. Re-enabled that and disabled the cPanel ruleset. Will see if that does anything, looking forward to any solid resolution to this.
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  • coursevector
    Since disabling the cPanel ruleset, SPAMD hasn't failed since Tuesday.
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  • Dathorn_ADT
    The cPanel ruleset is indeed problematic. We finally spent some time last week narrowing down our issues with spamd processes using a full CPU core until killed or the service was restarted. All of our problems immediately went away when disabling this ruleset. The KAM ruleset is fine as indicated above.
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  • morrow95
    I am here for the same reason as everyone else... I noticed my server load was very high and that spamd was using all the resources. This is for a 'good' server which is used very little and I mean very little. 4 cpus 16 gig ram CENTOS 6.7 x86_64 WHM 56.0 (build 14) Looking at yesterdays process log as an example root it going crazy with usage and the top processes show spamd being the culprit : root 0.34 0.59 2.0 --------------------------------- and my top processes : root 28.0 spamd child root 18.0 spamd child root 17.0 /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/perl/522/bin/perl -T -w /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/spamd --allowed-ips127.0.0.1,::1 --max-children5 --pidfile/var/run/spamd.pid --listen5 --listen6 dovecot 0.2 dovecot/auth site site.com 0.2 pure-ftpd (IDLE) dovecot 0.1 dovecot/auth --------------------------------- I have tried disabling the cpanel ruleset in the spam assassin options and will see how that goes. This is definitely something due to an upgrade as I have never experienced this in the past and have been using WHM/Cpanel for 10 years or more.
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  • cPanelMichael
    I have tried disabling the cpanel ruleset in the spam assassin options and will see how that goes. This is definitely something due to an upgrade as I have never experienced this in the past and have been using WHM/Cpanel for 10 years or more.

    Could you let us know the outcome after disabling those rulesets? Thank you.
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  • morrow95
    Could you let us know the outcome after disabling those rulesets? Thank you.

    I saw no change when disabling the cpanel.net ruleset which is the one referenced in this thread to solve the issue. I went ahead and disabled the KAM as well so both are disabled and nothing has really changed. I saw the load approaching 1 while logged into WHM which is ridiculous considering the specs on the server, it is fairly new, and it is hardly used at all. Looking at the process manager the below along with one or more child processes are always the top users : spamd-dormant: waiting for connections --allowed-ips=127.0.0.1,::1 --max-children=5 --pidfile=/var/run/spamd.pid --listen=5,6 as I copy that it is .99 CPU with my next largest at .05. I'd be happy to open a ticket if you want to take a look around.
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  • cPanelMichael
    as I copy that it is .99 CPU with my next largest at .05.

    Out of curiosity, is your server not as responsive when the load is near 1? Generally speaking, most people would not consider this a high server load on a server with 4 CPUs. Thank you.
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  • morrow95
    Out of curiosity, is your server not as responsive when the load is near 1? Generally speaking, most people would not consider this a high server load on a server with 4 CPUs. Thank you.

    the process
    spamd-dormant: waiting for connections --allowed-ips=127.0.0.1,::1 --max-children=5 --pidfile=/var/run/spamd.pid --listen=5,6
    by itself was using .99 cpu with the next largest process only using .05. Would I consider spamd using practically a full cpu out of 4 a lot... yeah I would... especially when the next largest process running on the entire machine is only using .05.
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  • cPanelMichael
    Would you mind opening a support ticket so we can take a closer look? Thanks.
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  • cPanelMichael
    Hello, cPanel 58 includes resolutions aimed at preventing the high loads stemming from the "spamd" children, and SPF function related errors. Here's a summary of these cases from the cPanel 58 Change Log: Fixed case CPANEL-6219: Ensure that SPF is always available in SpamAssassin. Fixed case CPANEL-6218: Ensure SpamAssassin body rules get recompiled on update. Fixed case CPANEL-6217: Fix perlcritic warnings in Cpanel::SpamAssassinSandBox. Fixed case CPANEL-6217: Improve performance of hostname lookups for SpamAssassin. Thank you.
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