ams 2.63 consuming processor

[allengcs]

ams has been running great for months now but today all of a sudden it started taking up a lot of cpu (%14 currently but its been fluxuating as high as %50). Even when it's de-initialized, it still sits there and spins. Ability mail server seems to be actually working, but I have GOT to find out whats causing all this processor usage. Attached are some screenshots from the various diagnostics I looked at.

amsevenofflne.png (51.43 KiB) Viewed 7965 times

amsthreads.png (26.12 KiB) Viewed 8069 times

amsperformance.png (12.18 KiB) Viewed 8069 times

what can I do to fix this? I am on the latest version of AMS and I'm running windows 2003 server. I've never previously had a problem with AMS.

[Code Crafters]

The screenshots show a lot of threads running which are responsible for the memory and CPU usage. AMS uses a thread pool which means that threads are reused and not destroyed until the application is closed. You can limit the size of the thread pool (default 200 in the general settings) to reduce the demand on the system. Restarting the application will reset the thread pool and reduce the current amount of allocated threads. I should point out that the thread pool starts off quite small and only increases when more simultaneous threads are running so it grows based on the amount of traffic your mail server is using. In general only one thread is used per service session (e.g. SMTP, POP3, POP3 retrievals, IMAP4, WebMail). One session means one user so each service can use many threads if many simultaneous users. The admin interface will show the number of sessions currently running for each service.

[allengcs]

I realize that all the threads are causing the problem. They are being created and taken down veyr quickly too if you sit there and watch them. The reason I'm posting here is to find out why all of a sudden it's doing this. I don't want to find a way t olimit the threads. I want to figure out whats making the thread pool go crazy in the first place so I can fix the root cause. AMS has been running flawlessly for a while now and I havne't changed any setting. It just started doing this. I need help figuring out how to debug the problem and fix it.

[Code Crafters]

One or more of your services wil have had a lot of simultaneous connections to cause more threads to be needed. You can check the service logs (e.g. smtp.ini, pop3.ini) to see if any of them have had a lot of connections all at once. If you don't have many users on the mail server then it's probably SMTP that has had a small SPAM attack with lots of simultaneous connection. You can use SPAM filtering and SMTP IP restrictions to block any abusive IPs. You can also limit the number of simultaneous connections allowed if you need to. If you sent any very large mailing list emails then it may have been Outgoing Mail that needed many connections. Check the logs to try and locate the source of the extra connections.

[allengcs]

Hi Chris, thanks for the response.

Like I've said several times now. The processor consumption happens even with ALL SERVICES TURNED OFF.

I've checked every single log that I can find many times over and there very is little activity (the site isn't fully in production yet so we don't get many emails on it). I've checked the spam logs, smtp logs, pop3 logs, service logs, I've literally looked at every log including that with the extra debug info turned on and there is nothing that stands out. I can send you all the logs if you would like. I have also looked at all the que directories and there is nothing in any of them. I can even let you onto that server to take a look if you want.

what would make it sit and spin threads like mad even with all services de-initialied (turned off)?

[allengcs]

I really need help on this guys. It's seriously impacting our server to have AMS spinning this hard. We are an enterprise customer and have been using this for a while. I've sent email asking for help and I've posted here.

[Code Crafters]

If no services are running it will still run high if they have been running since the application started of course. Please feel free to send me your log files to chris@code-crafters.com for me to have a look at. If you really want to you can give me remote access to your server and I'll have a look at the application running directly for any obvious problems.

[allengcs]

will get on that right now. thank you very much