On Tue, Sep 19, 2006 at 01:25:53PM +0100, Jeremy Harris wrote: > Mark Adams wrote: > > I was hoping to draw from the pool of experience that the exim mailing > > list has, as I realise this is a spamassassin or other issue. We are > > running exim4.62-4 with Spamassassin 3.1.4-4 and suffering extremely > > high IO Wait times on the server whenever spamassassin scans an incoming > > email. Exim4 is setup as defaults (spamd running locally on standard > > port) so no configuration was changed. Spamassassin has not had any > > rules added to it. The server goes from 1-2% wait times spiking to > > between 20-90% when spamd is scanning an email, this lasts for a few > > seconds and then drops back down to normal. This is a system with raided > > SATA drives on a LVG that also serves small SMB shares. It serves around > > 40 mail users. > > > > I have not had this problem on servers with SCSI drives, or on servers > > that use SATA but are strictly mail servers. > > Traditionally I/O wait time is, as far as the processor is concerned, > just another sort of idle time. If you had more cpu work to do they'd > be doing it.
I'm talking about the wait time on the disks (iowait) which as defined by iostat manpage %iowait "Show the percentage of time that the CPU or CPUs were idle during which the system had an outstanding disk I/O request." it seems the disks cannot keep up with spamassassin? It is definatly something that I am worrying about as it is causing lag to the SMB service on the same server. > > As to why you've not seen it with SCSI drives, I'd suspect buggy > drivers not reporting waits properly. > > In short - you're doing I/O. Don't worry. > > - Jeremy > > -- > ## List details at http://www.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users > ## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/ > ## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://www.exim.org/eximwiki/ -- ## List details at http://www.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users ## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/ ## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://www.exim.org/eximwiki/
