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Mercury Memory Leak

In addition to Thomas' comments it should be noted that paths without drive letter may not work if running Mercury as a service. This is how it Mercury creates a path by default:

mailqueue:       C:\PROGRAM\MERCURY\QUEUE

Paths are not needed for protocol modules (the dll:s should be in the Mercury directory).

Unless your computer actually is named "localhost" you shouldn't specify that name in the Domains section.

As you apparently had the scheduling module MercuryX loaded it should be noted that this module is broken in the 4.72 release and may have caused problems for you. There is a patch in the downloads section, but in your case just turn it off as Thomas suggested.

/Rolf 

<p>In addition to Thomas' comments it should be noted that paths without drive letter may not work if running Mercury as a service. This is how it Mercury creates a path by default:</p><blockquote><p><i>mailqueue:       C:\PROGRAM\MERCURY\QUEUE</i></p></blockquote><p>Paths are not needed for protocol modules (the dll:s should be in the Mercury directory).</p><p>Unless your computer actually is named "localhost" you shouldn't specify that name in the Domains section.</p><p>As you apparently had the scheduling module MercuryX loaded it should be noted that this module is broken in the 4.72 release and may have caused problems for you. There is a patch in the downloads section, but in your case just turn it off as Thomas suggested.</p><p>/Rolf </p>

We recenrly installed a v4.72 release of Mercury that came as part of the XAMPP package, installed to Windows 2003 Server.  When we have the Mercury package running, the system continually increases memory usage at a rate of about 48K every 2 seconds until memory is exhausted.  The server runs for days without Mercury running at roughly 300MB memory usage.  As soon as we turn it on, memory rises regularly, such that it is exceeding 1GB within a day or two.  (As I watch it even this afternoon, it's gone up 60MB in just 45 minutes, and it is still ticking up 48K with every two refreshed of TaskMgr.)

Is this a known issue? Are there any known solutions yet?  We had dabbled with an older version (I think v4.5) years back, and I don't recall seeing this problem.  I know that the issue is NOT with sending mail, because this server is configured exclusively as an outbound relay server  for a Joomla web server (that I am not even using yet because of the problem), and it is not even configured to receive Emails inbound at all.

Suggestions?

<p>We recenrly installed a v4.72 release of Mercury that came as part of the XAMPP package, installed to Windows 2003 Server.  When we have the Mercury package running, the system continually increases memory usage at a rate of about 48K every 2 seconds until memory is exhausted.  The server runs for days without Mercury running at roughly 300MB memory usage.  As soon as we turn it on, memory rises regularly, such that it is exceeding 1GB within a day or two.  (As I watch it even this afternoon, it's gone up 60MB in just 45 minutes, and it is still ticking up 48K with every two refreshed of TaskMgr.)</p><p>Is this a known issue? Are there any known solutions yet?  We had dabbled with an older version (I think v4.5) years back, and I don't recall seeing this problem.  I know that the issue is NOT with sending mail, because this server is configured exclusively as an outbound relay server  for a Joomla web server (that I am not even using yet because of the problem), and it is not even configured to receive Emails inbound at all.</p><p>Suggestions? </p>

This is not something that has been seen elsewhere. We have been running a Mercury instance with heavy SMTP load and continuous POP3 and IMAP access for months without any memory issues.

Is there some other software on the server that might interfere with SMTP traffic, such as real time antivirus scanning?

/Rolf 

<p>This is not something that has been seen elsewhere. We have been running a Mercury instance with heavy SMTP load and continuous POP3 and IMAP access for months without any memory issues.</p><p>Is there some other software on the server that might interfere with SMTP traffic, such as real time antivirus scanning?</p><p>/Rolf </p>

+1

Our Mercury install sometimes runs for months without a restart.

Current uptime just over a week (reboot for Windows updates) and Mem usage is at 16,008 K.

A lot of posters seem to have issues with the preconfigured install with XAMPP.

I would suggest removing it, and installing & configuring from the official Mercury installer.

<p>+1</p><p>Our Mercury install sometimes runs for months without a restart.</p><p>Current uptime just over a week (reboot for Windows updates) and Mem usage is at 16,008 K.</p><p>A lot of posters seem to have issues with the preconfigured install with XAMPP.</p><p>I would suggest removing it, and installing & configuring from the official Mercury installer. </p>

As soon as we turn it on, memory rises regularly, such that it is

exceeding 1GB within a day or two.  (As I watch it even this afternoon,

it's gone up 60MB in just 45 minutes, and it is still ticking up 48K

with every two refreshed of TaskMgr.)Is this a known issue? Are there any known solutions yet?

This is neither a known problem nor do I see this problem with my XAMMP test setup.  Mine runs for weeks at a time on a IBM laptop using XAMMP and the memory is generally running between  7000K to 1500K.

I suspect that there is something running between Mercury and the rest of the setup that is leaking memory.

 

<blockquote>As soon as we turn it on, memory rises regularly, such that it is exceeding 1GB within a day or two.  (As I watch it even this afternoon, it's gone up 60MB in just 45 minutes, and it is still ticking up 48K with every two refreshed of TaskMgr.)Is this a known issue? Are there any known solutions yet? </blockquote><p>This is neither a known problem nor do I see this problem with my XAMMP test setup.  Mine runs for weeks at a time on a IBM laptop using XAMMP and the memory is generally running between  7000K to 1500K.</p><p>I suspect that there is something running between Mercury and the rest of the setup that is leaking memory.</p><p>  </p>

Thanks to all for valuable suggestions.  The problem does not appear to be a conflict, as this is a dedicated/clean Win2003 Server that has never had anything else on it.  In fact, the current box is still in a test area, and has not had any AV installed yet, either, so besides Windows patches, XAMMP, and VMWare Tools, the box is completely clean.

I have found that I can now schedule a NET STOP and NET START every night, and eliminate at least the manual processing of the stop/start.  (Even this wasn't feasible until I found the solution to the "offline mode" problem, caused y loading MercuryX.  Now that this is gone, the batch file restarts it cleanly.)  So, the critical issue is resolved, at least for the time being.

I will try removing the Mercury config in its entirety and install it outside of XAMMP, to see if that helps.  Does anyone know if there is an easy way to save ALL existing Mercury settings and restore them after a reinstall?

<p>Thanks to all for valuable suggestions.  The problem does not appear to be a conflict, as this is a dedicated/clean Win2003 Server that has never had anything else on it.  In fact, the current box is still in a test area, and has not had any AV installed yet, either, so besides Windows patches, XAMMP, and VMWare Tools, the box is completely clean. </p><p>I have found that I can now schedule a NET STOP and NET START every night, and eliminate at least the manual processing of the stop/start.  (Even this wasn't feasible until I found the solution to the "offline mode" problem, caused y loading MercuryX.  Now that this is gone, the batch file restarts it cleanly.)  So, the critical issue is resolved, at least for the time being. </p><p>I will try removing the Mercury config in its entirety and install it outside of XAMMP, to see if that helps.  Does anyone know if there is an easy way to save ALL existing Mercury settings and restore them after a reinstall? </p>

> I will try removing the Mercury config in its entirety and install it outside of XAMMP, to see if that helps.  Does anyone know if there is an
> easy way to save ALL existing Mercury settings and restore them after a reinstall?

Copy the current Mercury install to c:\mercury and then edit the Mercury.ini with a ASCII editor that can do a find and replace to change all instances of C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL with c:\mercury. 

FWIW, I run Mercury/32  v4.72 with my test setup of XAMPP on a IBM laptop without problems.

> I will try removing the Mercury config in its entirety and install it outside of XAMMP, to see if that helps.  Does anyone know if there is an > easy way to save ALL existing Mercury settings and restore them after a reinstall? Copy the current Mercury install to c:\mercury and then edit the Mercury.ini with a ASCII editor that can do a find and replace to change all instances of C:\xampp\MERCURYMAIL with c:\mercury.  FWIW, I run Mercury/32  v4.72 with my test setup of XAMPP on a IBM laptop without problems.

I'm seeing this problem as well.  Running 4.72 as a Windows XP service with the XAMPP wrapper, from XAMPP 1.7.3.  Steady increase in virtual memory use until the system becomes unresponsive.  

Did reinstalling Mercury outside of XAMPP resolve this problem?

<p>I'm seeing this problem as well.  Running 4.72 as a Windows XP service with the XAMPP wrapper, from XAMPP 1.7.3.  Steady increase in virtual memory use until the system becomes unresponsive.  </p><p>Did reinstalling Mercury outside of XAMPP resolve this problem?</p>

I'm seeing this problem as well.  Running 4.72 as a Windows XP

service with the XAMPP wrapper, from XAMPP 1.7.3.  Steady increase in

virtual memory use until the system becomes unresponsive.  

Did

reinstalling Mercury outside of XAMPP resolve this problem?

Could we see your mercury.ini file for analysis?  Since XAMPP does not really install Mercury properly I'm wondering if there is something in the setup that is causing Mercury to appear to leak memory.

 

<div class="ForumReplyToPostArea"> <blockquote><p>I'm seeing this problem as well.  Running 4.72 as a Windows XP service with the XAMPP wrapper, from XAMPP 1.7.3.  Steady increase in virtual memory use until the system becomes unresponsive.  </p><p>Did reinstalling Mercury outside of XAMPP resolve this problem?</p></blockquote><p>Could we see your mercury.ini file for analysis?  Since XAMPP does not really install Mercury properly I'm wondering if there is something in the setup that is causing Mercury to appear to leak memory.</p><p>  </p> </div>

I don't know if this is possible within your XAMPP setup, but have you considered configuring Mercury to exit and restart once a day? You do this in the 'Advanced' tab of the Mercury Core Module Configuration, and it requires that you use 'loader.exe' as a shim to run Mercury.  This will not fix the possible memory leak, but will limit its effect by restarting Mercury once a day at a time of your choosing.

 

<p>I don't know if this is possible within your XAMPP setup, but have you considered configuring Mercury to exit and restart once a day? You do this in the 'Advanced' tab of the Mercury Core Module Configuration, and it requires that you use 'loader.exe' as a shim to run Mercury.  This will not fix the possible memory leak, but will limit its effect by restarting Mercury once a day at a time of your choosing.</p><p> </p>

Add me to the list.  I installed XAMPP earlier this year, including Mercury Mail.  I configured Mercury Mail to start on boot, but never got around to configuring or otherwise using it, so it's in the configuration that it comes in fresh out of the XAMPP "box", and is not sending or receiving mail.  It's just sitting there "idle".

After a day or two, when I come in to work, I get a message that virtual memory is exhausted and that the pagefile size is being increased (physical memory is 2G, pagesize is locked to 8,192 max/min).  Process monitor shows that my committed memory is 9.03 gigabytes.  When I exit Mercury Mail, commit charge drops instantly from 9.03G to 1.0G.

I was thinking of using it to manage mail to/from a forum I set up under XAMPP but I definitely need to get this issue resolved first.  I'm running this on my desktop, and it becomes pretty nonresponsive once the system reaches this state.  Restarting periodically might put a bandaid on the issue, but that's not good enough long term.

Running WinXP.
 

Jim

<p>Add me to the list.  I installed XAMPP earlier this year, including Mercury Mail.  I configured Mercury Mail to start on boot, but never got around to configuring or otherwise using it, so it's in the configuration that it comes in fresh out of the XAMPP "box", and is not sending or receiving mail.  It's just sitting there "idle". </p><p>After a day or two, when I come in to work, I get a message that virtual memory is exhausted and that the pagefile size is being increased (physical memory is 2G, pagesize is locked to 8,192 max/min).  Process monitor shows that my committed memory is 9.03 gigabytes.  When I exit Mercury Mail, commit charge drops instantly from 9.03G to 1.0G. </p><p>I was thinking of using it to manage mail to/from a forum I set up under XAMPP but I definitely need to get this issue resolved first.  I'm running this on my desktop, and it becomes pretty nonresponsive once the system reaches this state.  Restarting periodically might put a bandaid on the issue, but that's not good enough long term.</p><p>Running WinXP.  </p><p>Jim</p>

Well, my Mercury installation at home, that has been running for just over a month with practically constant use and no restarts, allocates 12,8 MB of RAM at present (running as service with interactive GUI on Win 2003 server). Modules loaded are MercuryS, MercuryP, MercuryE, MercuryD and MercuryI.

If you provide some information about your setup we could try to see if there is a reason for that rather different behavior.

/Rolf 

<p>Well, my Mercury installation at home, that has been running for just over a month with practically constant use and no restarts, allocates 12,8 MB of RAM at present (running as service with interactive GUI on Win 2003 server). Modules loaded are MercuryS, MercuryP, MercuryE, MercuryD and MercuryI.</p><p>If you provide some information about your setup we could try to see if there is a reason for that rather different behavior.</p><p>/Rolf </p>

> I was thinking of using it to manage mail to/from a forum I set up under XAMPP but I definitely need to get this issue resolved first.
> I'm running this on my desktop, and it becomes pretty non-responsive once the system reaches this state.  Restarting periodically might put
> a bandaid on the issue, but that's not good enough long term.

This could be your XAMPP setup doing this since I have an XAMPP test setup here that runs Mercury for weeks without any problem at all with memory.  This is on an old IBM Thinkpad x31 with 2 GB RAM running WinXP Pro SP3.  

> I was thinking of using it to manage mail to/from a forum I set up under XAMPP but I definitely need to get this issue resolved first. > I'm running this on my desktop, and it becomes pretty non-responsive once the system reaches this state.  Restarting periodically might put > a bandaid on the issue, but that's not good enough long term. This could be your XAMPP setup doing this since I have an XAMPP test setup here that runs Mercury for weeks without any problem at all with memory.  This is on an old IBM Thinkpad x31 with 2 GB RAM running WinXP Pro SP3.  

>If you provide some information about your setup we could try to see if there is a reason for that rather different behavior.

Well I won't rule out incompetence on my part.  I didn't even know Mercury Mail was bundled with XAMPP.  As it turns out, it appears I do need something like it in order to implement post by email with my forum software, but until now, I've never run a mail server and don't know much about configuring them.  Is there a config file I could post or some rudimentary troubleshooting procedures I should follow? 

Also, there was a question about the XAMPP set-up.  Does Mercury Mail interact with Tomcat or other XAMPP components?  I had the impression it was bundled because it's an oft-needed component when someone configures a web app and needs local email, but not because there were dependencies.  It appeared to me that there was little interaction, so I'd like to hear more about that, as well.

Jim

<p>>If you provide some information about your setup we could try to see if there is a reason for that rather different behavior.</p><p>Well I won't rule out incompetence on my part.  I didn't even know Mercury Mail was bundled with XAMPP.  As it turns out, it appears I do need something like it in order to implement post by email with my forum software, but until now, I've never run a mail server and don't know much about configuring them.  Is there a config file I could post or some rudimentary troubleshooting procedures I should follow?  </p><p>Also, there was a question about the XAMPP set-up.  Does Mercury Mail interact with Tomcat or other XAMPP components?  I had the impression it was bundled because it's an oft-needed component when someone configures a web app and needs local email, but not because there were dependencies.  It appeared to me that there was little interaction, so I'd like to hear more about that, as well. Jim</p>

Is there a config file I could post or some rudimentary troubleshooting

procedures I should follow?

Post a copy of the mercury.ini file to the forum and we'll provide comments on what's in the file.  FWIW, there is very little configuration done by XAMPP when you install and  what is done is very often wrong.  For example

1.  You must not be using MercuryE to send the mail if you do not have a fixed IP address.

2.  You must ensure that relaying in MercuryS is turned off and strict relaying is turned on.

3.  The name of the host must either be a valid host name or a bracketed IP address , i.e. [204.192.128.2].

4.  The [domains] section MUST show valid local domains.

 

<blockquote>Is there a config file I could post or some rudimentary troubleshooting procedures I should follow?</blockquote><p>Post a copy of the mercury.ini file to the forum and we'll provide comments on what's in the file.  FWIW, there is very little configuration done by XAMPP when you install and  what is done is very often wrong.  For example </p><p>1.  You must not be using MercuryE to send the mail if you do not have a fixed IP address.</p><p>2.  You must ensure that relaying in MercuryS is turned off and strict relaying is turned on.</p><p>3.  The name of the host must either be a valid host name or a bracketed IP address , i.e. [204.192.128.2].</p><p>4.  The [domains] section MUST show valid local domains.</p><p> </p>

Thanks for you help!  Find mercury.ini attached.

Regarding the bullet points you mentioned, (1) I'm not (to the best of my knowledge) sending anything through MM at least for now, (2) relaying could be configured improperly if that's how it came out of the box, (3) we use fixed IPs and DNS names, but looking at mercuriy.ini it looks like it's pointed to 127.0.0.1?, and (4) since I didn't change anything, I didn't update the domains to be valid, but as I mentioend, I'm not actually using it currently either, so my hope is that valid or not, domain names shouldn't matter, unless MM is trying to do something in the background without my specifically telling it to.

Look forward to hearing what the "experts" think! 

 
 

 

<p>Thanks for you help!  Find mercury.ini attached.</p><p>Regarding the bullet points you mentioned, (1) I'm not (to the best of my knowledge) sending anything through MM at least for now, (2) relaying could be configured improperly if that's how it came out of the box, (3) we use fixed IPs and DNS names, but looking at mercuriy.ini it looks like it's pointed to 127.0.0.1?, and (4) since I didn't change anything, I didn't update the domains to be valid, but as I mentioend, I'm not actually using it currently either, so my hope is that valid or not, domain names shouldn't matter, unless MM is trying to do something in the background without my specifically telling it to.</p><p>Look forward to hearing what the "experts" think!  </p><p>   </p><p> </p>

> Thanks for you help!  Find mercury.ini attached.
>
> Regarding the bullet points you mentioned, (1) I'm not (to the best of my knowledge) sending anything through MM at least for now, (2)
> relaying could be configured improperly if that's how it came out of the box, (3) we use fixed IPs and DNS names, but looking at
> mercury.ini it looks like it's pointed to 127.0.0.1?, and (4) since I didn't change anything, I didn't update the domains to be valid,
> but as I mentioned, I'm not actually using it currently either, so my hope is that valid or not, domain names shouldn't matter, unless
> MM is trying to do something in the background without my
> specifically telling it to.
>
> Look forward to hearing what the "experts" think!

#  MERCURY.INI generated by Mercury Setup

Removed data that is not material to the problem.


> [General]
> myname:          comp-jamesbay-1.fas.harvard.edu    # Canonical name for this server

No data returned from the DNS.  There should at least be a MX record pointing to this host.

> [Protocols]
> \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYS.DLL
> \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYP.DLL
> \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYE.DLL
> # \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYC.DLL
> \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYD.DLL
> \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYH.DLL
> \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYF.DLL
> \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYW.DLL
> \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYX.DLL
> \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYI.DLL
> \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYB.DLL

Use Configuration | Protocols and turn off the ones you are not going to use.  At least turn off these since you are not using them.

MERCURYP.DLL
MERCURYD.DLL
MERCURYH.DLL
MERCURYF.DLL
MERCURYW.DLL
MERCURYX.DLL
MERCURYI.DLL
MERCURYB.DLL


> [Mercury]
> postmaster:    jamesbay    # NetWare UIC of postmaster
>

I assume that if you use Configuration | Manage local users that this user exists.



> [MercuryE]
> Session_logging : \xampp\MercuryMail\SESSIONS\MERCURYE
> Session_logmode : 0
> Poll : 15
> Timeout : 60

When sending via MercuryE you should enter the IP addresses of the name servers.

Nameservers : 205.219.84.7, 205.219.84.5




> [MercuryS]
> Debug : 1
> Logfile : \xampp\MercuryMail\LOGS\MERCURYS\~y-~m-~d.log
> Timeout : 30
> Relay : 0

Use Configuration | MercuryS | Connection control and turn off relaying and turn on strict.  When sending you will need to use SMTP authentication.  If you do not any if the server is on the internet it will be blacking listed when the spammer start relaying off the server.


> Strict_Relay : 0
> Allow_Illegals : 0
> SMTP_Authentication : 0
> Session_logging : \xampp\MercuryMail\ESSIONS\MERCURYS


Is this a good path? I would have expected \xampp\MercuryMail\SESSIONS\MERCURYS

[Domains]
localhost: localhost
localhost: [127.0.0.1]

You need to enter a valid local domain.  Since you are using a fixed IP address the host name of the fixed IP address should be used here.  The fixed IP address should also be entered to allow for literal addressing just like you have added the [127.0.0.1]




> Thanks for you help!  Find mercury.ini attached. > > Regarding the bullet points you mentioned, (1) I'm not (to the best of my knowledge) sending anything through MM at least for now, (2) > relaying could be configured improperly if that's how it came out of the box, (3) we use fixed IPs and DNS names, but looking at > mercury.ini it looks like it's pointed to 127.0.0.1?, and (4) since I didn't change anything, I didn't update the domains to be valid, > but as I mentioned, I'm not actually using it currently either, so my hope is that valid or not, domain names shouldn't matter, unless > MM is trying to do something in the background without my > specifically telling it to. > > Look forward to hearing what the "experts" think! #  MERCURY.INI generated by Mercury Setup Removed data that is not material to the problem. > [General] > myname:          comp-jamesbay-1.fas.harvard.edu    # Canonical name for this server No data returned from the DNS.  There should at least be a MX record pointing to this host. > [Protocols] > \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYS.DLL > \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYP.DLL > \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYE.DLL > # \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYC.DLL > \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYD.DLL > \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYH.DLL > \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYF.DLL > \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYW.DLL > \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYX.DLL > \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYI.DLL > \xampp\MercuryMail\MERCURYB.DLL Use Configuration | Protocols and turn off the ones you are not going to use.  At least turn off these since you are not using them. MERCURYP.DLL MERCURYD.DLL MERCURYH.DLL MERCURYF.DLL MERCURYW.DLL MERCURYX.DLL MERCURYI.DLL MERCURYB.DLL > [Mercury] > postmaster:    jamesbay    # NetWare UIC of postmaster > I assume that if you use Configuration | Manage local users that this user exists. > [MercuryE] > Session_logging : \xampp\MercuryMail\SESSIONS\MERCURYE > Session_logmode : 0 > Poll : 15 > Timeout : 60 When sending via MercuryE you should enter the IP addresses of the name servers. Nameservers : 205.219.84.7, 205.219.84.5 > [MercuryS] > Debug : 1 > Logfile : \xampp\MercuryMail\LOGS\MERCURYS\~y-~m-~d.log > Timeout : 30 > Relay : 0 Use Configuration | MercuryS | Connection control and turn off relaying and turn on strict.  When sending you will need to use SMTP authentication.  If you do not any if the server is on the internet it will be blacking listed when the spammer start relaying off the server. > Strict_Relay : 0 > Allow_Illegals : 0 > SMTP_Authentication : 0 > Session_logging : \xampp\MercuryMail\ESSIONS\MERCURYS Is this a good path? I would have expected \xampp\MercuryMail\SESSIONS\MERCURYS [Domains] localhost: localhost localhost: [127.0.0.1] You need to enter a valid local domain.  Since you are using a fixed IP address the host name of the fixed IP address should be used here.  The fixed IP address should also be entered to allow for literal addressing just like you have added the [127.0.0.1]
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