[CentOS] Postfix dying

Wed Nov 7 18:57:26 UTC 2007
Paul Norton <paul at neoverve.com>

Hello list,

Postfix is dying on one of my servers almost nightly.  This system is 
running CentOS5 with postfix-2.3.3-2.

In the morning (after noticing it died) I try to run `service postfix 
stop` and I get a failed start.  Running `ps ax | grep postfix` I can 
see one process still running for postfix.  After killing this, I am 
able to run `service postfix start`.

I see a lot of this in my maillog:

Nov  7 00:25:13 servername postfix/smtpd[16727]: lost connection after 
CONNECT from unknown[201.251.x.x]
Nov  7 00:25:13 servername postfix/smtpd[16715]: disconnect from 
unknown[201.251.x.x]
Nov  7 00:25:13 servername postfix/smtpd[16727]: disconnect from 
unknown[201.251.x.x]
Nov  7 00:25:13 servername postfix/smtpd[16723]: warning: connect to 
private/anvil: Resource temporarily unavailable
Nov  7 00:25:13 servername postfix/smtpd[16723]: warning: problem 
talking to server private/anvil: Resource temporarily unavailable
Nov  7 00:25:13 servername postfix/smtpd[16723]: lost connection after 
CONNECT from unknown[201.251.x.x]
Nov  7 00:25:13 servername postfix/smtpd[16723]: disconnect from 
unknown[201.251.x.x]
Nov  7 00:27:22 servername postfix/smtpd[16184]: warning: timeout on 
private/anvil while reading input attribute name
Nov  7 00:27:22 servername postfix/smtpd[16184]: warning: problem 
talking to server private/anvil: Connection timed out
Nov  7 00:27:22 servername postfix/smtpd[16910]: warning: timeout on 
private/anvil while reading input attribute name
Nov  7 00:27:22 servername postfix/smtpd[16910]: warning: problem 
talking to server private/anvil: Connection timed out
Nov  7 00:27:22 servername postfix/smtpd[16726]: warning: timeout on 
private/anvil while reading input attribute name
Nov  7 00:27:22 servername postfix/smtpd[16726]: warning: problem 
talking to server private/anvil: Connection timed out
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16184]: warning: connect to 
private/anvil: Resource temporarily unavailable
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16184]: warning: problem 
talking to server private/anvil: Resource temporarily unavailable
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16184]: lost connection after 
CONNECT from unknown[201.251.x.x]
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16184]: disconnect from 
unknown[201.251.x.x]
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16910]: warning: connect to 
private/anvil: Resource temporarily unavailable
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16910]: warning: problem 
talking to server private/anvil: Resource temporarily unavailable
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16910]: lost connection after 
CONNECT from unknown[86.123.x.x]
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16910]: disconnect from 
unknown[86.123.x.x]
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16726]: warning: connect to 
private/anvil: Resource temporarily unavailable
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16726]: warning: problem 
talking to server private/anvil: Resource temporarily unavailable
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16726]: lost connection after 
CONNECT from cpe-024-x-x-x.carolina.x.x.com[24.74.x.x]
Nov  7 00:27:23 servername postfix/smtpd[16726]: disconnect from 
cpe-024-074-x-x.carolina.x.x.com[24.74.x.x]

TIA for any suggestions.

-- 
Paul Norton
Systems Administrator
Neoverve - www.neoverve.com
Neoverve Blog - http://blog.neoverve.com/