named "error sending response: not enough free resources"

[James Smallacombe]

NOTE: Please reply off-list as well as I am not subscribed

My server (7.2-STABLE) suffered at least two outages Sunday through 
yesterday after having been up since July (it is a rented dedicated server 
with my FSBD install).  The first time, I was able to log in via remotely, 
saw a ton of spam apparently abusing a php mail form script (more on that 
later) filling the /var partition.  I purged it, but it still required a 
reboot as CPU was through the roof.

Yesterday morning, I was unable to get into the server at all...pings were very 
high.  I called the provider and got in via KVM over IP.  CPU was fine and 
there wre no full partitions.  As I had to catch a flight, I just rebooted it 
and it was fine.

After getting home, I looked in the syslog and see thousands of these:

Jan 26 21:50:32 host named[667]: client <IP REMOVED>#57938: error sending 
response: not enough free resources
Jan 26 21:50:32 host named[667]: client <IP REMOVED>#59830: error sending 
response: not enough free resources

Some googling on this error found a reference to a possible queue limiting 
problem in pf/qlimit, but the only firewalling I do is a very basic ipfw setup 
strictly for bruteblock.

I am not even sure if this error caused the outage(s) or was caused by them, 
let alone a fix or workaround.  Appreciate any and all clues, especially if you 
are familiar with this.

TIA!

James Smallacombe		      PlantageNet, Inc. CEO and Janitor
up at 3.am							    http://3.am
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