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Unable to stop exim

Discussion in 'E-mail Discussion' started by Mugoma, Apr 20, 2017.

  1. Mugoma

    Mugoma Well-Known Member

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    Hello,

    We want to stop exim to do some housekeeping then restart but not working as expected.

    We do:
    # service exim stop
    # service exim status
    # ps -aux | grep exim

    This shows exim is not running. So far so good.

    But:
    1. When we open webmail we can see new emails coming in.
    2. WHM service status shows exim is UP
    3. Process list (via top or WHM) shows exim running

    Obviously it appears exim is till running though the command prompt shows otherwise. Why?
     
    #1 Mugoma, Apr 20, 2017
  2. SysSachin

    SysSachin Well-Known Member

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    Hello,

    Go to "Service Manager" in WHM, uncheck exim. Save your changes. Log onto SSH and stop exim using below command

    service exim stop

    Once you have disabled in Service Manager, chkservd won't restart it
     
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    #2 SysSachin, Apr 21, 2017
  3. cPanelMichael

    cPanelMichael Technical Support Community Manager Staff Member

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    Hello,

    The previous post is correct. You can disable the service in "WHM >> Service Manager" to ensure it's not automatically restarted by Chkservd. Let us know if that helps.

    Thanks!
     
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    #3 cPanelMichael, Apr 21, 2017
  4. Mugoma

    Mugoma Well-Known Member

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    My understanding is that Chkservd checks and restarts services after 5 minutes. So, that's not the issue.

    Why would Chkservd start a service after a second or two and why would that not show on command prompt?

    If Chkservd started the service wouldn't it show status as running on the command prompt?

    Basically, the question is why there's contradictions between what's happening on the system and what command prompt shows.
     
    #4 Mugoma, Apr 21, 2017
  5. cPanelMichael

    cPanelMichael Technical Support Community Manager Staff Member

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    Hello,

    The status in "WHM >> Server Status" stems from the most recent status report from Chkservd. When stopping Exim manually, do you notice any output in /var/log/chkservd.log before Exim starts running again?

    Thank you.
     
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    #5 cPanelMichael, Apr 21, 2017
  6. Mugoma

    Mugoma Well-Known Member

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    This is still not working.

    I have exim disabled. On the command prompt exim status shows as stopped. But I can still see exim on the process list.
     
    #6 Mugoma, Apr 22, 2017
  7. 24x7server

    24x7server Well-Known Member

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    Hi,

    You can rename the exim restart script. Make sure you have disabled the exim in the service manager section completely.
    rename /etc/init.d/exim and also /scripts/restartsrv_eximd.

    See if that helps.
     
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    #7 24x7server, Apr 23, 2017
  8. Mugoma

    Mugoma Well-Known Member

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    Wouldn't this interfere with normal operation of exim?
     
    #8 Mugoma, Apr 23, 2017
  9. 24x7server

    24x7server Well-Known Member

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    It is a service start and stop script, so once you are done with your housekeeping, you can rename it back again.. It is only to make sure that the system monitoring does not track it and restart it when you housekeeping it.
     
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    #9 24x7server, Apr 24, 2017
  10. Mugoma

    Mugoma Well-Known Member

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    Actually there's nothing wrong with start script.

    Our suspicion is that there's a spammer who's invoking exim directly. That's why the process shows in process list even if service is stopped.

    We have tried changing permission on exim to allow allow root to execute but this seems to stops exim altogether.

    So, at the moment what we need ways to block exim from being directly executed.
     
    #10 Mugoma, Apr 24, 2017
  11. Mugoma

    Mugoma Well-Known Member

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    We decided to raise support ticket as it's taking too long to get solution from forum:

    Support ticket: 8405145
     
    #11 Mugoma, Apr 24, 2017
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