MAILPING−CRON

2004-04-15

mailping

0.0.4

NAME

mailping-cron − run periodic processing to test email service availability and functioning

SYNOPSIS

mailping−cron

DESCRIPTION

mailping−cron processes incoming emails, updates status and sends out probe messages.

The idea is to configure multiple email “circuits”, send probe messages regularly, and see whether they complete the circuit and how long it took.

Setting up a circuit

1. Give a name to the circuit, hereafter referred to as circuit.

2. Arrange for a local email address to be delivered to maildir /var/lib/mailping/state/circuit/incoming/. See mailping−store.

3. Create a configuration for the circuit, by creating directory /etc/mailping/circuit.

If you need non−default sender and/or recipient addresses, create files from and to there, containing the sender and recipient addresses suitable for the circuit.

4. You're done! Munin should now see the data.

Testing multiple servers
To test functioning of more than one email server, arrange an email alias at a remote site pointing to an address on your server, and set the address of that alias here.

Here's an example of testing a system consisting of two email servers and everything in that path (smarthosts, primary MXs, virus checkers, etc.):

Local address <mailping+that@this.example.com> is delivered with mailping−store to /var/lib/mailping/state/that/incoming/.

Remote address <echo@that.example.com> is an alias that redirects all email to <mailping+that@this.example.com>.

/etc/mailping/that/to is set to <echo@that.example.com>.

FILES

/etc/mailping/circuit/from

Sender address for the probe emails. Default: <currentuserid@fullyqualifiedhostname>.

/etc/mailping/circuit/to

Recipient address for the probe emails. You must arrange for the email to eventually get delivered to the maildir /var/lib/mailping/state/circuit/incoming/. mailping−store will probably be useful in that. Default: <currentuserid+circuit@fullyqualifiedhostname>

/etc/mailping/circuit/admin

Admistrative address, set as Reply−To in probe messages. Default: do not add Reply−To.

/etc/mailping/circuit/interval

How often a probe message is sent, in seconds. Default: 600 seconds.

/var/lib/mailping/state/circuit/

Stored state for the probing.

/var/lib/mailping/state/circuit/junk/

Maildir used to store all messages in incoming that do not look like probe messages. Read and delete them regularly.

/var/lib/mailping/state/circuit/broken/

Maildir used to store all messages in incoming that do look like probe messages, but a corresponding pending entry cannot be found. Duplicated probe messages cause these. Read and delete them regularly.

ENVIRONMENT

MAILPING_CONFIGDIR

Override the location of the configuration directory. Default: /etc/mailping

MAILPING_STATEDIR

Override the location of the state directory. Circuit states are stored in the state subdirectory of this directory, in subdirectories named after the circuit name. Default: /var/lib/mailping

SEE ALSO

mailping−store(1), mailping−success(1), mailping−latency(1)

AUTHOR

Tommi Virtanen <tv@havoc.fi>
Havoc Consulting

Author.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2004 Havoc Consulting