amavisd-new exits unexpectedly

[Mark Martinec]

Rob,

> I run an OpenBSD mail server using postfix, amavisd-new, spamassassin,
> and clamav. Amavisd is configured as a before-queue content filter.
> I'm using the versions that come packaged with OpenBSD 5.1, namely:
> [...]
> The other day I woke up to discover that amavisd had simply exited and
> postfix was rejecting all mail to my server.  The last thing amavisd
> logged was:
> > Sep  6 04:00:04 bsd amavis[24627]: Net::Server: 2012/09/06-04:00:04 Server
> > closing!
> 
> after that the rejections started.  Apparently amavisd restarts completely
> or partially every day and I see the same message generated.
> The difference is that after the "Server closing!" message I see the
> usual amavisd startup messages.  For example: [...]

> I did not twiddle with any software between Sept 5th and 6th.
> Does someone have some idea why might be causing this, and how I might
> fix it?

Clayton Keller wrote:
> Some form of log rotate hup'ing services?

Yes, very likely, considering the exact 4:00 a.m. hour.
(or perhaps a restart for the purpose of reloading SpamAssassin rules)

Check cron jobs, investigate how/why it tries to restart amavisd.
Looks like it tries to do a cold restart (stop & start), where a
stop succeeds but a start does not. Possibly a permission issue,
like a permission/ownership on a config file or DKIM keys file.

A cold restart is very rarely needed (like when changing the set
of sockets / ports). When other config parameters are changed
or when a reload o SpamAssassin rules is needed, a warm restart
suffices (# amavisd reload ) and is much less disruptive on the
mail system (MTA does not notice it, except by a slight delay
in response).

When logging goes to syslog (usual and recommended), an amavisd
restart is not necessary for log rotation.

  Mark