Exim and spamd causing server load

[jerryactive]

Hello ,

I am now facing load problem in my servers. Server load is now reaching values above 100. I had monitored the server and found that exim and spamd are the major consumers of server resources.

When i stop exim the server load will show a steep decrease and will be stable near a value of 1. I thought this is an issue with spamming. I did configure the exim.conf file , but i am not aware of the exact steps to configure exim in DA. I was working with cpanel servers earlier , and got confused with the exim settings in DA.

It would be greatly appreciated if some body could provide me the steps to configure exim to prevent the spamming. Also can any body let me know how to find out the spammer /spamming domain ?

Thank you in advance.

 

[GXX]

Check your exim log: /var/log/exim/mainlog

Have you installed spamblocker?

http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19275

 

[jerryactive]

Thanks for the reply.

I had gone through the thread. Can i replace my existing exm.conf file with the one specified in the url http://files.directadmin.com/services/exim.conf.

Would i affect my exim settings.

 

[GXX]

Yes, it is recommeded you do so if you are running an out of date exim.conf. Check the top of your /etc/exim.conf and see what version it is.

 

[jerryactive]

I have checked the top portion of exim.conf . The top portion is as shown below.

====================
######################################################################
# SpamBlocker.exim.conf.2.0-release #
# Runtime configuration file for DirectAdmin/Exim 4.24 and above #
######### IMPORTANT ########## IMPORTANT ########## IMPORTANT ########
====================

Also i found that the version of exim to be ESMTP Exim 4.68. would this be the cause of the spam?

How can i update them to the latest versions?


Is this outdated.?

I have also read that people recommending dovecot over vm-pop3d..... does it help in reducing load?

 

[GXX]

Your exim.conf is not up to date. Here's how to update it:

http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=51

Exim is now at 4.69. Update using update.script or custombuild which you can read about on these forums.

Yes, dovecot uses Maildir. It's far more efficient. Here's how to convert to dovecot:

http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=143

 

[jerryactive]

Thank you very much.

The reply was very helpful.

 

[nobaloney]

Don't forget to look through your exim.conf file for instances of example.com in notices sent back to the sending server when emails are blocked, and change them to a page hosted on your server.

Also remember that SpamBlocker will only block spam for domains listed in /etc/virtual/use_rbl_domains.

On our reference server we find that SpamBlocker blocks over 90% of the incoming mail, and SpamAssassin runs a lot cooler .

Jeff