Exim 4.60 & SA 3.1.0 Issues [Update]

[Bradley Walker <ba...@modemnet.net>]

I just wanted to take a few moments to update everyone here on my trials and
tribulations on getting SA to work using Exim 4.60 or several previous
versions.  As I wrote in my last email, and just to give a quick refresher,
I have had problems successfully running SA 3.1.0 and Exim 4.60 together.
When both services are started using the "service exim restart" and "spamd
-d -c -m 5" commands, everything seems to intially work great.  The few
emails that come through show that they have been scanned with spamblocker
(Jeff Lasman's creation) and also show that they have been scanned with
SpamAssassin with a 2.5 level rating.
 
However I immediately notice an instant decrease in overall general email.
Upon checking my /var/log/exim/mainlog I immediately see that exim is
havings problems with BSMTP data timeout errors.  Here is a clip of my
logfile from 11pm last night when I had restarted the spamd service.
Beneath that is a clip of the log from 6pm this evening without the spamd
service running:
 
*************
01-26-2006
*************
 
2006-01-26 21:08:54 SMTP data timeout (message abandoned) on connection from
local process F=<ml...@preferredchoicemtg.com>
2006-01-26 21:08:54 1F2H3A-0008I1-G1 <aa...@preferredchoicemtg.com>:
spamcheck transport output: An error was detected while processing a file of
BSMTP input.
2006-01-26 21:08:54 1F2H3A-0008I1-G1 == aangell@preferredchoicemtg.com
R=spamcheck_director T=spamcheck defer (0): transport filter timeout while
writing to pipe
2006-01-26 21:08:54 SMTP connection from mail lost while reading message
data (header)
2006-01-26 21:08:54 1F2Gsa-0008CE-Bc <aa...@preferredchoicemtg.com>:
spamcheck transport output: An error was detected while processing a file of
BSMTP input.
2006-01-26 21:08:54 1F2Gsa-0008CE-Bc == aangell@preferredchoicemtg.com
R=spamcheck_director T=spamcheck defer (0): transport filter timeout while
writing to pipe
 
 
*************
01-27-2006
*************
 
2006-01-27 17:59:45 1F2cZF-0002LZ-3r <= jenniferd_amic@yahoo.com
H=mta190.mail.mud.yahoo.com [68.142.202.138] P=smtp S=1624 T="Yahoo! Auto
Response" from <je...@yahoo.com> for barbara@valleyinscenter.com
2006-01-27 17:59:48 1F2cZF-0002Ld-A1 <= jenniferd_amic@yahoo.com U=mail
P=spam-scanned S=1890 T="Yahoo! Auto Response" from
<je...@yahoo.com> for barbara@valleyinscenter.com
2006-01-27 17:59:48 1F2cZF-0002Ld-A1 => barbara
<ba...@valleyinscenter.com> F=<je...@yahoo.com> R=virtual_user
T=virtual_localdelivery S=2074
2006-01-27 17:59:48 1F2cZF-0002Ld-A1 Completed
2006-01-27 17:59:48 1F2cZF-0002LZ-3r => barbara
<ba...@valleyinscenter.com> F=<je...@yahoo.com>
R=spamcheck_director T=spamcheck S=1706
2006-01-27 17:59:48 1F2cZF-0002LZ-3r Completed

 
As you can tell there is a major difference in what is happening.  With
SpamAssassin running, I'm having *LOTS* of SMTP data timeouts being written
to the exim log.  The symptoms are still the same with users intermittently
not getting or being able to send email.  In some cases as it is above,
people in the same office who use my server are unable to send or forward
email to one another.
 
After getting intial thoughts and suggestions from those here on the list, I
began implimenting some of them with no luck.  Here is what I tried:
 
- Downgraded to Exim 4.54 & running SpamAssassin 3.1.0 (Did not work)
- Downgraded to Exim 4.53 & running SpamAssassin 3.1.0 (Did not work)
- Downgraded to earlier versions of Exim & earlier versions of SpamAssassin,
3.0.0 and earlier.  (Did not work)
- Used the latest version of Exim with earlier versions of SpamAssassin
going back to 2.6x (Did not work)
- Added "timeout_defer" and "ignore_status" to the exim.conf.  (Did not
work)
- Checked for "blacklist-uri.cafe", "blacklist.cf" to possibly remove them.
(Did not find these)
- Checked normal system load averages.  Load averages are 0.01/0.0/0.0.
- Checked CPU & memory usage.  CPU usage is very low, less than 2% normally
and memory at 1GB is not over utilized.
- Checked to make sure I am NOT using MySQL for Bayes DB's.
 
Currently I am out of options on what to do.  Jeff Lasman's spamblocker is
doing a good job blocking alot of spam, but there is still a good bit
getting through being delievered right to client's inboxes.  Several clients
have wanted me to do something about this and I would love to oblige those
clients by getting another layer of spamprotection working again.  What
bothers me is that when I orginially was running Exim 4.53 & SpamAssassin
2.6 everything was working *GREAT*.  But now it's not, even if I
downlograde.
 
Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Comments?