Dovecot keeps triggering excessive resource usage alerts after updating to version v86.0.4

[Alexandros Androutsos]

Hello all,

My server just updated to v86.0.4 and after that dovecot seems to be working overtime. It never bothered me before but since the update, it keeps triggering the lfd alert of excessive resource usage.

Here is the latest email alert:

Time:         Fri Feb 28 14:13:22 2020 +0200

Account:      dovecot
Resource: Process Time
Exceeded:     34279 > 1800 (seconds)




Executable: /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-hibernate
Command Line: dovecot/imap-hibernate
PID: 19803 (Parent PID:2426)
Killed: No

So my questions are:

1. What is dovecot? (no... really never ever bothered me before... have no idea what it is and what it does)
2. Is it supposed to run all the time continuously on one process?
3. Is the resolution for this to add it into the pignore list?
4. Why wasn't this one running all the time on the previous version? (v84)
5. Did I place this post in the right forum category? (If an admin finds this please move it to the proper one if I didn't)

If I terminate - kill the process it pops up with a new id and after half an hour starts producing alerts again.
Restarting the server also does not resolve the issue.

Thanks all for your time

 

[quietFinn]

@Alexandros Androutsos

Take a look at this thread:

Excessive Resource usage for IMAP Hibernate since upgrade to 86.0.4

Immediately since updating to 86.0.4 on the release tier, I am now getting a constant trickle of notifications: Time: Wed Feb 19 17:16:31 2020 +0000 Account: dovecot Resource: Process Time Exceeded: 2054 > 2000 (seconds) Executable: /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-hibernate...

forums.cpanel.net

 

[cPanelLauren]

The thread that @quietFinn linked is the thread I'm handling further information on this process but to answer your questions:

• What is dovecot? (no... really never ever bothered me before... have no idea what it is and what it does)

Dovecot is your MailServer, it's an opensource IMAP and POP3 email server for Linux.

• Is it supposed to run all the time continuously on one process?

If you want mail or use mail, yes dovecot itself should run all the time and could spawn several different processes. The process being addressed here is the dovecot-hibernate process. This occurs when an IMAP client is idle but maintains the connection to the server. While in this state it's moved to dovecot-hibernate

• Is the resolution for this to add it into the pignore list?

For right now it is, I've opened a request with CSF to add this automatically to the whitelist/pignore list on cPanel servers.

1. Why wasn't this one running all the time on the previous version? (v84)

This is explained in the other thread as well but we started moving processes to this state after a specified timeout in cPanel v86

1. Did I place this post in the right forum category? (If an admin finds this please move it to the proper one if I didn't)

You did not but that's fine, i've gone ahead and moved it to Email Discussion for you

 

[Alexandros Androutsos]

Hello all,

It seems that procrastination is a good thing some times. I was overwhelmed with work the past few days so I kept postponing to resolve this one. Eventually, Cpanel and CSF updated themselves and the issue just disappeared. The warnings stoped so I suppose that either cpanel or CSF latest version takes care of that problem.

Thank you for the information too. It's a good thing to know about dovecot. It is indeed a necessary process for my setup (although in the future I plan to move mail services outside my server, for the time being they are served off the single VPS)

Thank you.