eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by IncomingQueueTest

The cleanup service of the Postfix mail server writes all new mails into the incoming queue. Under normal conditions the incoming queue is nearly empty (has only mode 0600 files), with the queue manager able to import new messages into the active queue as soon as they become available. The incoming queue grows rapidly when the message input rate spikes above the rate at which the queue manager can import messages into the active queue. The main factors that are slowing down the queue manager are disk I/O and lookup queries to the trivial-rewrite service. If the incoming queue grows abnormally and is not emptied, then the new messages from the maildrop queue cannot be accommodated. In such cases, administrators may not know when exactly the incoming queue started growing and to which particular domain those messages were to be delivered. To have a fair knowledge on these issues, administrators can use the IncomingQueueTest.

This test periodically monitors the incoming queue of the target Postfix mail server and reports the total size of the queue as well as the split up of the message count in terms of time duration i.e., the number of messages that were in the queue for a specified time duration.

The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
Queue_size Indicates the total size of the queue. Number An unusually high number of messages in the queue is indicative of any problem with the corresponding queue or its end points.

The Detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the message count for each domain.
Less_than_5_mins Indicates the number of messages that were in the queue for less than 5 minutes. Number  
Between_5_to_10_mins Indicates the number of messages that were in the queue for a time duration between 5 to 10 minutes. Number  
Between_10_to_20_mins Indicates the number of messages that were in the queue for a time duration between 10 to 20 minutes. Number  
Between_20_to_40_mins Indicates the number of messages that were in the queue for a time duration between 20 to 40 minutes. Number  
Between_40_to_80_mins Indicates the number of messages that were in the queue for a time duration between 40 to 80 minutes. Number  
Between_80_to_160_mins Indicates the number of messages that were in the queue for a time duration between 80 to 160 minutes. Number  
Between_160_to_320_mins Indicates the number of messages that were in the queue for a time duration between 160 to 320 minutes. Number  
Between_320_to_640_mins Indicates the number of messages that were in the queue for a time duration between 320 to 640 minutes. Number  
Between_640_to_1280_mins Indicates the number of messages that were in the queue for a time duration between 640 to 1280 minutes. Number  
More_than_1280_mins Indicates the number of messages that were in the queue for more than 1280 minutes. Number A high value for this measure is a cause of concern as it may indicate an impending problem with the domain to which the messages are destined to. The domain may either be too slow to accommodate all the messages or the domain may be down for a long period of time.