Clamscan processes caused so much CPU usage and thrashing that server failed to respond to any network connections.

My Virtualmin GPL server recently completely freaked out while attempting to access some of its Web pages I received 500 Internal Server Errors. After ruling out network issues, it appears the problem was that the server’s CPU and Memory usage were so crazy that it would no longer respond to any network connections even ssh log in attempts would TCP timeout.

I created a ticket with my hosting company, and the sysadmin on their end was able to ssh into the server using the hosting provider’s private network. There he determined that the problem was tons of clamscan process all trying to run at the same time. Check out the attached graph from their monitoring software. Max system load was 94.8! How could there possibly be 94.8 runnable processes at the same time!!!

I had no idea that clamscan was even running on the system. I didn’t think the server checked SPAMs for virusus, but apparently it tries to.

The hosting sysadmin disabled clamscan by setting its permissions of 000. Now there are Permission denied errors in procmail’s log file.

I have no clue how to debug this mess. Please help me any way you can. Also, could someone knowledgeable please explain Virtualmin GPL’s mail system, and how and where clamscan fits into it.

I can’t debug this problem, because I don’t know enough information about it yet.

Thanks,
Dave.

Below are some snippets from some log files. I can reply attaching bigger chunks if needed, but I’d rather not due to leaking domain names and IP address and email address, and all of that crap.

procmail.log:

From oGKVfbY575@ahahe.com  Wed Jul  3 03:28:52 2013
 Subject: [SPAM] The 50 Best Foods for Weight Loss
  Folder: /home/someuser/Maildir/.spam/new/1372840164.5970_0.somedom    14946
Time:1372840164 From:oGKVfbY575@ahahe.com To:d2e711c7@anotherdomain.com User:someuser Size:14998 Dest:/home/mybadmin/Maildir/.spam/new/1372840164.5970_0.mydomain.com Mode:Spam
sh: /usr/bin/clamscan: Permission denied

messages (Around the time of the insane loadavg, it’s full of OOM Killer logs.)

Jul  3 02:18:29 web4 kernel: controller invoked oom-killer: gfp_mask=0x201da, order=0, oom_adj=0, oom_score_adj=0
Jul  3 02:18:30 web4 kernel: controller cpuset=/ mems_allowed=0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Pid: 8758, comm: controller Not tainted 2.6.32-358.11.1.el6.x86_64 #1
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Call Trace:
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? cpuset_print_task_mems_allowed+0x91/0xb0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? dump_header+0x90/0x1b0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? __delayacct_freepages_end+0x2e/0x30
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? security_real_capable_noaudit+0x3c/0x70
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? oom_kill_process+0x82/0x2a0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? select_bad_process+0xe1/0x120
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? out_of_memory+0x220/0x3c0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x8ac/0x8d0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? alloc_pages_current+0xaa/0x110
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? __page_cache_alloc+0x87/0x90
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? find_get_page+0x1e/0xa0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? filemap_fault+0x1a7/0x500
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? __do_fault+0x54/0x530
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? handle_pte_fault+0xf7/0xb50
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? __ip_local_out+0x9f/0xb0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? ip_local_out+0x25/0x30
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? ip_queue_xmit+0x190/0x420
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? copy_user_generic+0xe/0x20
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? handle_mm_fault+0x23a/0x310
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? __do_page_fault+0x139/0x480
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? wait_consider_task+0x9d/0xb20
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? read_tsc+0x9/0x20
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? ktime_get_ts+0xb1/0xf0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? poll_select_copy_remaining+0xf8/0x150
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? do_page_fault+0x3e/0xa0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [] ? page_fault+0x25/0x30
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Mem-Info:
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Node 0 DMA per-cpu:
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    0: hi:    0, btch:   1 usd:   0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    1: hi:    0, btch:   1 usd:   0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    2: hi:    0, btch:   1 usd:   0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    3: hi:    0, btch:   1 usd:   0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    4: hi:    0, btch:   1 usd:   0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    5: hi:    0, btch:   1 usd:   0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    6: hi:    0, btch:   1 usd:   0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    7: hi:    0, btch:   1 usd:   0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Node 0 DMA32 per-cpu:
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    0: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:  34
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    1: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:  30
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    2: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:   5
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    3: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:   3
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    4: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:   9
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    5: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:   0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    6: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:   0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: CPU    7: hi:  186, btch:  31 usd:   2
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: active_anon:310818 inactive_anon:104950 isolated_anon:1120
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: active_file:363 inactive_file:568 isolated_file:0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: unevictable:1 dirty:3 writeback:176 unstable:0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: free:13204 slab_reclaimable:3226 slab_unreclaimable:13473
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: mapped:327 shmem:26 pagetables:18014 bounce:0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Node 0 DMA free:8264kB min:336kB low:420kB high:504kB active_anon:1372kB inactive_anon:5676kB active_file:12kB inactive_file:60kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:15268kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:4kB mapped:12kB shmem:4kB slab_reclaimable:28kB slab_unreclaimable:124kB kernel_stack:0kB pagetables:92kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:218 all_unreclaimable? no
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: lowmem_reserve[]: 0 1982 1982 1982
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Node 0 DMA32 free:44856kB min:44716kB low:55892kB high:67072kB active_anon:1241900kB inactive_anon:413868kB active_file:1440kB inactive_file:2212kB unevictable:4kB isolated(anon):4480kB isolated(file):0kB present:2030100kB mlocked:4kB dirty:12kB writeback:700kB mapped:1296kB shmem:100kB slab_reclaimable:12876kB slab_unreclaimable:53768kB kernel_stack:3696kB pagetables:71964kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Node 0 DMA: 6*4kB 10*8kB 16*16kB 5*32kB 3*64kB 3*128kB 2*256kB 3*512kB 1*1024kB 2*2048kB 0*4096kB = 8264kB
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Node 0 DMA32: 1528*4kB 840*8kB 628*16kB 324*32kB 67*64kB 14*128kB 8*256kB 5*512kB 1*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 44960kB
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: 25022 total pagecache pages
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: 24007 pages in swap cache
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Swap cache stats: add 4307521, delete 4283514, find 142406403/142858653
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Free swap  = 4kB
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: Total swap = 1048568kB
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: 522224 pages RAM
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: 47365 pages reserved
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: 31665 pages shared
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: 453364 pages non-shared
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ pid ]   uid  tgid total_vm      rss cpu oom_adj oom_score_adj name
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [  556]     0   556     2716        1   0     -17         -1000 udevd
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 2401]     0  2401     2660        1   0     -17         -1000 udevd
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 2402]     0  2402     2715        1   1     -17         -1000 udevd
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 2583]     0  2583     1539        2   0       0             0 portreserve
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 2590]     0  2590    62367      182   3       0             0 rsyslogd
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 2644]     0  2644     2707       94   0       0             0 irqbalance
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8228]    81  8228     5383        2   0       0             0 dbus-daemon
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8257]     0  8257     1019        1   1       0             0 acpid
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8266]    68  8266     6340      136   1       0             0 hald
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8267]     0  8267     4526        2   0       0             0 hald-runner
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8295]     0  8295     5055        2   1       0             0 hald-addon-inpu
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8306]    68  8306     4451        2   0       0             0 hald-addon-acpi
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8323]     0  8323    16029        1   0     -17         -1000 sshd
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8331]    38  8331     7540       74   0       0             0 ntpd
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8367]     0  8367    27050        2   2       0             0 mysqld_safe
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8543]     0  8543     4814        2   5       0             0 dovecot
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8544]    97  8544     3243        2   1       0             0 anvil
Jul  3 02:18:44 web4 kernel: [ 8546]     0  8546     3276        2   3       0             0 log
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8555]     0  8555    16602        2   1       0             0 saslauthd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8556]     0  8556    16602        2   0       0             0 saslauthd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8557]     0  8557    16602        2   4       0             0 saslauthd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8558]     0  8558    16602        2   0       0             0 saslauthd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8559]     0  8559    16602        2   1       0             0 saslauthd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8635]     0  8635    19682       57   1       0             0 master
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8642]    89  8642    19816      170   0       0             0 qmgr
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8663]     0  8663    37546       41   1       0             0 proftpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8685]     0  8685    27543        2   0       0             0 abrtd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8693]     0  8693    27015       47   1       0             0 abrt-dump-oops
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8701]     0  8701    85462      280   6       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8710]     0  8710    29308       57   4       0             0 crond
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8721]     0  8721     5363        1   1       0             0 atd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8731]     0  8731    25230        7   1       0             0 rhnsd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8739]     0  8739    25971        2   0       0             0 rhsmcertd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8752]     0  8752     1604       12   1       0             0 nimbus
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8758]     0  8758     2228       88   5       0             0 controller
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8773]    89  8773    19701       72   1       0             0 tlsmgr
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8776]     0  8776    21085      102   1       0             0 spooler
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8780]     0  8780     2251       67   4       0             0 hdb
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8791]     0  8791     3076      113   4       0             0 cdm
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8812]     0  8812     2982       76   2       0             0 processes
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8820]     0  8820    23375      134   1       0             0 miniserv.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8839]     0  8839    23500      296   0       0             0 miniserv.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8850]     0  8850     1015        2   0       0             0 mingetty
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8852]     0  8852     1015        2   3       0             0 mingetty
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8854]     0  8854     1015        2   7       0             0 mingetty
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8856]     0  8856     1015        2   3       0             0 mingetty
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8858]     0  8858     1015        2   6       0             0 mingetty
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8860]     0  8860     1015        2   0       0             0 mingetty
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 8863]     0  8863     1019        2   0       0             0 agetty
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 9127]     0  9127    23299       58   0     -17         -1000 auditd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 3094]     0  3094    48304      386   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [15547]   542 15547    55052       16   0       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [19869]   549 19869    54951        2   0       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [20597]   557 20597    54924        2   4       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [ 7082]     0  7082     9814        2   2       0             0 ssl-params
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [16296]     0 16296    35029        6   2       0             0 crond
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [16298]     0 16298    39793        2   0       0             0 backup.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [16330]     0 16330    38845      756   0       0             0 lfd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [19366]     0 19366    19777       15   0       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [19463]     0 19463     2307        2   7       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [19464]     0 19464     2307        1   4       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [19465]     0 19465     7010       58   0       0             0 tar
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [19466]     0 19466     1074       75   4       0             0 gzip
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [19467]     0 19467     1024       10   0       0             0 cat
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [20085]     0 20085    19777        2   0       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [21402]     0 21402    19777       18   0       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [21591]     0 21591    28736      895   1       0             0 miniserv.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [21775]     0 21775    36300       30   1       0             0 miniserv.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [21816]     0 21816     2833        2   0       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [21822]     0 21822    18905      250   0       0             0 rpm
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [21901]     0 21901    39557      229   0       0             0 miniserv.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [21923]     0 21923    19777      115   0       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [22057]     0 22057     2833        2   7       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [22060]     0 22060    18862      748   4       0             0 rpm
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [22256]   557 22256     2307        2   7       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [22266]   557 22266    41732    11725   0       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [22383]     0 22383    19777      114   0       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [22414]    48 22414    85495      362   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [22660]     0 22660    19777       11   0       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [22725]     0 22725    19777      115   1       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [22980]     0 22980    19777       27   4       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [23014]   557 23014     2307        2   4       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [23015]   557 23015    57619    13078   0       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [23237]     0 23237    19777       20   0       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [23386]     0 23386    19777      114   0       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [23429]    89 23429    19702       85   5       0             0 pickup
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [23605]     0 23605    19777       21   0       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [23947]     0 23947    38996      440   5       0             0 lfd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24014]    48 24014    85495      359   3       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24081]    48 24081    85495      387   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24082]     0 24082    35029        6   2       0             0 crond
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24137]     0 24137    34458     5826   0       0             0 monitor.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24200]     0 24200    19777       17   0       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24267]    48 24267    85499      358   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24304]    48 24304    85495      361   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24450]    27 24450   343008      697   0       0             0 mysqld
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24509]    48 24509    85495      365   3       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24894]     0 24894    19777       73   1       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24905]     0 24905    19777      118   0       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24950]    48 24950    85528      374   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24952]    48 24952    85495      357   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24955]    48 24955    85495      357   4       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [24973]    48 24973    85495      350   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25108]    48 25108    85495      389   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25139]     0 25139    82029     2864   0       0             0 rhn_check
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25159]    89 25159    19872        4   0       0             0 cleanup
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25226]    89 25226    19755      108   4       0             0 trivial-rewrite
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25243]    48 25243    85528      401   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25244]    48 25244    85495      355   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25271]   606 25271     2307        2   7       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25294]   606 25294    56915    22255   0       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25308]     0 25308    19777        2   4       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25342]    48 25342    85495      363   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25369]     0 25369    35029        9   0       0             0 crond
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25392]    48 25392    85495      347   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25393]     0 25393    34474     4180   0       0             0 backup.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25410]   636 25410     2205       15   1       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25435]    89 25435    19871      141   1       0             0 cleanup
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25441]   549 25441     2205        2   0       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25445]   557 25445     2205       47   1       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25453]   549 25453     2205       39   3       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25475]   549 25475     6392        2   0       0             0 clam-wrapper.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25476]   549 25476     2307        2   6       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25477]   549 25477    57618    21448   4       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25480]   513 25480     2205        2   3       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25511]   513 25511     6392       12   0       0             0 clam-wrapper.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25536]     0 25536     4324        6   2       0             0 anacron
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25537]   513 25537     2307        6   7       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25538]     0 25538    23948      105   0       0             0 sshd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25540]   513 25540    57651    38995   0       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25573]   557 25573     2205       48   1       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25585]   536 25585     2205       26   1       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25590]   568 25590     2205       28   0       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25602]     0 25602    27116      144   3       0             0 bash
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25608]   536 25608     2205       28   0       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25633]   536 25633     6392        2   0       0             0 clam-wrapper.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25634]   536 25634     2307        2   7       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25635]   536 25635    57652    48145   0       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25648]   536 25648     6392        6   0       0             0 clam-wrapper.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25660]   568 25660     6392       40   0       0             0 clam-wrapper.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25667]   536 25667     2307        2   7       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25670]   536 25670    42888    33779   0       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25677]   568 25677     2307        2   0       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25678]   568 25678    42761    34550   0       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25720]    48 25720    85495      381   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25732]    48 25732    85496      377   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25736]    48 25736    85495      373   4       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25753]    48 25753    85495      382   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25754]    48 25754    85495      376   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25755]    48 25755    85496      401   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25759]    48 25759    85495      398   5       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25762]    48 25762    85495      385   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25851]   513 25851     2205       32   0       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25886]    48 25886    85495      378   4       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25889]    48 25889    85495      368   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25891]    89 25891    24099      526   4       0             0 smtpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25901]     0 25901    35029       78   1       0             0 crond
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25902]   513 25902     6392       93   0       0             0 clam-wrapper.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25903]    89 25903    19700      248   2       0             0 anvil
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25904]   513 25904     2307       37   0       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25905]   513 25905    25794    20638   0       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25906]     0 25906    32509     7803   4       0             0 monitor.pl
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25917]    89 25917    19873      420   1       0             0 cleanup
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25924]    48 25924    85495      377   3       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25959]   636 25959     2205       15   0       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25960]   636 25960    22364     5941   0       0             0 spamassassin
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25961]    48 25961    85495      393   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [25962]     0 25962    19777      384   3       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:45 web4 kernel: [26006]    48 26006    85495      389   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26007]    48 26007    85495      407   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26013]    89 26013    19873      447   0       0             0 cleanup
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26015]    89 26015    24099      549   6       0             0 smtpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26036]   557 26036     6392      171   0       0             0 clam-wrapper.pl
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26053]   557 26053     2307      119   7       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26054]   557 26054    30180    24347   6       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26067]   568 26067     2205      119   0       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26068]    89 26068    19753      328   4       0             0 smtp
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26079]   549 26079     2205       28   5       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26080]   549 26080    24476     8068   0       0             0 spamassassin
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26082]     0 26082     2205      116   3       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26087]     0 26087     2205       37   4       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26088]     0 26088    28918    19054   0       0             0 lookup-domain.p
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26092]   568 26092     6392      172   4       0             0 clam-wrapper.pl
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26096]   557 26096     6392      171   0       0             0 clam-wrapper.pl
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26101]   568 26101     2307      120   0       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26102]   557 26102     2307      119   5       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26106]    89 26106    19753      328   0       0             0 smtp
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26107]   568 26107    27649    22480   0       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26108]    48 26108    85462      409   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26112]    89 26112    19711      316   4       0             0 bounce
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26114]   557 26114    13813     9057   0       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26115]     0 26115     2307      120   4       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26116]     0 26116    35029      168   2       0             0 crond
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26118]    48 26118    85462      410   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26120]    48 26120    85462      386   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26123]    48 26123    85462      386   3       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26125]     0 26125     3342      133   2       0             0 ps
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26129]    48 26129    85462      386   3       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26130]    48 26130    85462      392   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26131]    48 26131    85462      386   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26133]    48 26133    85462      387   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26134]    48 26134    85462      386   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26135]    48 26135    85462      391   3       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26136]     0 26136    14288     5460   0       0             0 monitor.pl
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26147]     0 26147    26399     5344   0       0             0 miniserv.pl
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26160]   606 26160     2205      119   0       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26167]    48 26167    85495      391   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26168]    48 26168    85462      382   4       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26169]    48 26169    85462      349   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26170]    48 26170    85495      390   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26171]    48 26171    85462      372   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26172]    48 26172    85462      395   4       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26173]    48 26173    85495      416   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26174]    48 26174    85462      388   4       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26180]   606 26180     6392      172   0       0             0 clam-wrapper.pl
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26183]    48 26183    85462      349   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26184]   606 26184     2307      120   1       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26185]   606 26185    10550     5990   0       0             0 clamscan
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26188]     0 26188    28901     7882   0       0             0 miniserv.pl
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26189]    48 26189    85462      402   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26190]    48 26190    85462      382   3       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26191]    48 26191    85462      411   3       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26219]    48 26219    85462      388   3       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26220]    48 26220    85462      387   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26225]    89 26225    19711      312   0       0             0 bounce
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26226]    48 26226    85462      389   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26227]    48 26227    85462      400   1       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26229]    48 26229    85462      383   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26230]    48 26230    85462      380   2       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26231]    48 26231    85462      384   4       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26232]    48 26232    85462      372   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26233]    48 26233    85462      378   4       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26239]    89 26239    24066      531   0       0             0 smtpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26241]     0 26241    19777      372   5       0             0 local
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26242]     0 26242     2205      115   1       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26243]   606 26243     2205      120   1       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26249]     0 26249     2205      115   0       0             0 procmail
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26258]     0 26258    19147      185   0       0             0 sendmail
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26260]    48 26260    85462      380   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26261]   568 26261     4791       37   2       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26262]    48 26262    85462      348   4       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26263]    48 26263    85462      383   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26265]   626 26265    16000       96   1       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26266]   626 26266     4791       38   5       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26267]   626 26267     5435       38   0       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26268]   568 26268     5435       38   1       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26269]   626 26269    16000       97   7       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26270]   626 26270    16000       96   5       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26271]   568 26271     4791       37   2       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26272]   626 26272     4791       37   6       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26273]   568 26273     5435       39   5       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26274]   606 26274     4791       38   2       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26275]   626 26275     4791       37   7       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26276]   568 26276    16000       98   2       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26277]   626 26277     4791       38   3       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26278]   568 26278    16000       96   3       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26279]   626 26279     4791       37   2       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26280]   606 26280     4791       38   3       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26281]   568 26281     4791       38   6       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26282]   553 26282     4791       38   6       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26283]   568 26283     4791       38   7       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26284]   568 26284     4791       38   5       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26285]   568 26285    16000       99   0       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26286]   568 26286     5435       38   4       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26287]   626 26287    16000       96   5       0             0 php-cgi
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26290]     0 26290    38845     2085   0       0             0 lfd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26292]     0 26292     2307      126   0       0             0 sh
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26293]     0 26293    19682       71   0       0             0 master
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26297]     0 26297    85463      328   0       0             0 httpd
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26301]     0 26301     2091       86   0       0             0 diff
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: [26302]   606 26302     4807       55   0       0             0 clam-wrapper.pl
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: Out of memory: Kill process 23015 (clamscan) score 69 or sacrifice child
Jul  3 02:18:48 web4 kernel: Killed process 23015, UID 557, (clamscan) total-vm:230476kB, anon-rss:52024kB, file-rss:288kB

While copying and pasting the output I found that 2 out of 3 backups are still running. Which is really weird. Normally, they would be done by now according to previous backups logs. But how do backups cause clamscan to totally freak out?

Thanks again,
Dave.

Howdy,

The backups and clamscan issues aren’t likely to be related, outside of the backups perhaps just taking longer if you have a high load.

Regarding why ClamAV is that heavily used… what kind of email volume are you seeing on your server?

And what does this command output:

mailq | tail -1

That will show how many emails are currently in your mail queue.

Lastly – in Virtualmin, if you go into Email Messages -> Spam and Virus Scanning, what is “Virus scanning program” set to?

-Eric

Yeah, I don’t think the backups and the weird clamscan problem are related either.

I’m not sure, there don’t seem to be any cool pretty graphs to look at. But there are only a few dozen domain names on the server with only 3 or 4 of them being remotely busy. I doubt the server receives more than a few hundred emails per day, and certainly not more than a thousand.

[root@web4 ~]# mailq | tail -1
– 95 Kbytes in 7 Requests.

“Virus scanning program” is currently set to clamdscan instead of clamscan, but when this crazy problem happened it was set to clamscan. Our server only has 2gigs of ram, so during installation I chose this setting to save memory. I have since changed my mind, and we’re now running clamdscan, and I also turned on the spamassassin server as well.

I think clamscan processes hung for some reason, and just built up, and built up until they were killed off, and disabled. But I don’t know. This problem seems not to have a concrete cause.

The sysadmin at our hosting provider ran the following commands on the maillog to view how much email we were seeing. I pasted them below:

Neither the per hour email counts or per hour byte counts below show a significant spike at Jul 3 00:00-01:00. I am not sure what caused clamscan to act in this fashion, I assume it hasn't occurred before?

[root@web4 log]# export IFS=$'\n';for i in 'Jul '{2..3}' 0?'{0..23}:; do echo -ne "$i\t" ;egrep "$i" maillog|egrep -o size= -c;done|sed -r 's,0\?,,'|egrep -v ':[^0-9]+0$'
Jul 2 0: 148
Jul 2 1: 146
Jul 2 2: 156
Jul 2 3: 136
Jul 2 4: 183
Jul 2 5: 235
Jul 2 6: 235
Jul 2 7: 192
Jul 2 8: 212
Jul 2 9: 191
Jul 2 10: 278
Jul 2 11: 205
Jul 2 12: 554
Jul 2 13: 525
Jul 2 14: 318
Jul 2 15: 184
Jul 2 16: 164
Jul 2 17: 143
Jul 2 18: 108
Jul 2 19: 104
Jul 2 20: 158
Jul 2 21: 162
Jul 2 22: 180
Jul 2 23: 107
Jul 3 0: 392
Jul 3 1: 174
Jul 3 2: 314
Jul 3 3: 709
Jul 3 4: 254
Jul 3 5: 275
Jul 3 6: 219
Jul 3 7: 55
[root@web4 log]#


[root@web4 log]# export IFS=$'\n';for i in 'Jul '{2..3}' 0?'{0..23}:; do echo -ne "$i\t" ;egrep "$i" maillog|egrep -o size='[^,]+'|cut -d = -f2|awk 'BEGIN {t=0} {t+=$1} END { print t }';done|sed -r 's,0\?,,'|egrep -v ':[^0-9]+0$'
Jul 2 0: 1695740
Jul 2 1: 1482535
Jul 2 2: 1430766
Jul 2 3: 547280
Jul 2 4: 939471
Jul 2 5: 1003869
Jul 2 6: 1095034
Jul 2 7: 776350
Jul 2 8: 1272074
Jul 2 9: 650174482
Jul 2 10: 1075594485
Jul 2 11: 1040508476
Jul 2 12: 982291199
Jul 2 13: 972627727
Jul 2 14: 1463541380
Jul 2 15: 1047309141
Jul 2 16: 1305308054
Jul 2 17: 767457621
Jul 2 18: 1359172
Jul 2 19: 1056364
Jul 2 20: 8156372
Jul 2 21: 11563517
Jul 2 22: 1975934
Jul 2 23: 960144
Jul 3 0: 5342974
Jul 3 1: 7763894
Jul 3 2: 4279537
Jul 3 3: 8149454
Jul 3 4: 2707278
Jul 3 5: 5503118
Jul 3 6: 1679448
Jul 3 7: 265139
[root@web4 log]#

Thanks,
Dave.