sudden peak in load average

[Zbigniew Szalbot]

Hello,

2008/2/27, Mark Tinguely <tinguely at casselton.net>:
>
>  >  >From the MRTG data I can see that suddenly on a currently not very
>  >  busy machine the load averege went over 15 or more. This happened
>  >  around 10 in the morning. Not many entries in httpd access log, smtp
>  >  server was not too much loaded (at that time it generally produces a
>  >  load average of about 1).
>
>
> By any chance, do you run SpamAssassin? I have seen load average bursts with
>  SA. It seems to me that spam sites are bursting spam to attempt to bring
>  down the anti-spam filters.
>
>  As mentioned by others a "ps" (or I prefer "pstree") list will help
>  solve the issue.

Thanks. I do have SA but I studied the logs carefully and no outside
connections, except for one with a vary small message desitined for
mailman subscription arrived at around that time.


-- 
Zbigniew Szalbot