Dovecot processes - much more than before - is that normal?

Hi All,

I installed dovcot on several servers and saw about 5-6 dovcot processes:

32680 ? S 15:23 dovecot
32687 ? S 12:52 \_ dovecot-auth
23444 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
24045 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
25003 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
29283 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
29427 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
29431 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login

Now, I installed dovcot on a new server and also an old server and in both I got a very long list of processes just from the plain install. (on a clean server with no domains):

11979 ? S 0:00 \_ /usr/local/directadmin/directadmin d
7409 ? S 0:00 dovecot
7411 ? S 0:00 \_ dovecot-auth
7414 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7415 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7416 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7417 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7418 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7419 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7420 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7421 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7422 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7423 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7424 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7425 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7426 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7427 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7428 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7429 ? S 0:00 \_ pop3-login
7430 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7431 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7432 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7433 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7434 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7435 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7436 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7437 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7438 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7439 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7440 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7441 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7442 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7443 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7444 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
7445 ? S 0:00 \_ imap-login
13437 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/exim -bd -q15m -oP /var/run/exim.pid
13442 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/spamd -d -c -m 5
13443 ? S 0:00 \_ spamd child
13444 ? S 0:00 \_ spamd child


Is that normal? did I do something wrong? Why are there so many running/listening processes of dovcot?
This is on a CentOS 4.4 and also I see this on a WB 3.0

Please advise if this is how it should be.


myz:/usr/local/directadmin/customapache/update # dovecot --version
1.0.rc29

myz:/usr/local/directadmin/customapache/update # exim -bV
Exim version 4.66 #1 built 02-Apr-2007 08:48:08
Copyright (c) University of Cambridge 2006
Berkeley DB: Sleepycat Software: Berkeley DB 4.1.25: (October 31, 2005)
Support for: crypteq iconv() Perl OpenSSL move_frozen_messages Content_Scanning Old_Demime
Lookups: lsearch wildlsearch nwildlsearch iplsearch cdb dbm dbmnz
Authenticators: cram_md5 plaintext spa
Routers: accept dnslookup ipliteral manualroute queryprogram redirect
Transports: appendfile/maildir/mailstore/mbx autoreply lmtp pipe smtp
Size of off_t: 8
Configuration file is /etc/exim.conf

Thanks,

-Alon

Like to know this too and why hasnt this been replied too?

pucky said:

Like to know this too and why hasnt this been replied too?

Click to expand...

From DA support:


Hello,

Yes, it's normal now.
This was added to the /etc/dovecot.conf

login_processes_count = 16

it's to ensure there are enough during the busy times of user logins.

Thank you,

John
--------------------------------------------------

Depends on your system though. I think 16 is way too many even on a busy box. Really dont need all those processes.

pucky said:

Depends on your system though. I think 16 is way too many even on a busy box. Really dont need all those processes.

Click to expand...

Then go ahead and lower it .

Jeff