[Dovecot] unkillable imap process(es) with high CPU-usage

[Gene Steinberg]

On Feb 15, 2009, at 12:43 PM, Timo Sirainen wrote:

> On Sun, 2009-02-15 at 12:10 -0700, Gene Steinberg wrote:
>> This is sounding similar to the problem I have with my setup:
>>
>> 1. High CPU usage.
>>
>> 2. Can't kill IMAP.
>
> kill -9 doesn't work for imap processes? You didn't mention this  
> before.
>
>> I'm using CentOS 5.2 64-bit version with the latest cPanel.
>>
>> So what am I missing, other than the problem nobody else is having is
>> clearly something they ARE having?
>
> If you can't kill -9 a process, it means the kernel is buggy. At least
> 2.6.27 was buggy and it was fixed in 2.6.27.10.
>


Some of this is above my pay grade (so forgive the imprecision), but I  
did try to restart IMAP in cPanel with no success, assuming I catch it  
before the load makes it impossible to do anything.

Yes, I have been able to kill processes by the standard ID number. I  
did that with rsync the other day when changing the backup parameters.

Here's the kernel info on my box:

Linux server.paracastworld.net 2.6.27.9rootserver-20081216a #1 SMP Tue  
Dec 16 02:29:13 EST 2008 x86_64

So that's a buggy kernel?

Or is the 2.6.27.9 version better than 2.6.27 in this regard?

Peace,
Gene