ANVIL(8) System Manager's Manual ANVIL(8)
NAME
anvil - Postfix session count and request rate control
SYNOPSIS
anvil [generic Postfix daemon options]
DESCRIPTION
The Postfix anvil(8) server maintains statistics about client connec-
tion counts or client request rates. This information can be used to
defend against clients that hammer a server with either too many simul-
taneous sessions, or with too many successive requests within a config-
urable time interval. This server is designed to run under control by
the Postfix master(8) server.
In the following text, ident specifies a (service, client) combination.
The exact syntax of that information is application-dependent; the
anvil(8) server does not care.
CONNECTION COUNT/RATE CONTROL
To register a new connection send the following request to the anvil(8)
server:
request=connect
ident=string
The anvil(8) server answers with the number of simultaneous connections
and the number of connections per unit time for the (service, client)
combination specified with ident:
status=0
count=number
rate=number
To register a disconnect event send the following request to the
anvil(8) server:
request=disconnect
ident=string
The anvil(8) server replies with:
status=0
MESSAGE RATE CONTROL
To register a message delivery request send the following request to
the anvil(8) server:
request=message
ident=string
The anvil(8) server answers with the number of message delivery
requests per unit time for the (service, client) combination specified
with ident:
status=0
rate=number
RECIPIENT RATE CONTROL
To register a recipient request send the following request to the
anvil(8) server:
request=recipient
ident=string
The anvil(8) server answers with the number of recipient addresses per
unit time for the (service, client) combination specified with ident:
status=0
rate=number
TLS SESSION NEGOTIATION RATE CONTROL
The features described in this section are available with Postfix 2.3
and later.
To register a request for a new (i.e. not cached) TLS session send the
following request to the anvil(8) server:
request=newtls
ident=string
The anvil(8) server answers with the number of new TLS session requests
per unit time for the (service, client) combination specified with
ident:
status=0
rate=number
To retrieve new TLS session request rate information without updating
the counter information, send:
request=newtls_report
ident=string
The anvil(8) server answers with the number of new TLS session requests
per unit time for the (service, client) combination specified with
ident:
status=0
rate=number
AUTH RATE CONTROL
To register an AUTH request send the following request to the anvil(8)
server:
request=auth
ident=string
The anvil(8) server answers with the number of auth requests per unit
time for the (service, client) combination specified with ident:
status=0
rate=number
SECURITY
The anvil(8) server does not talk to the network or to local users, and
can run chrooted at fixed low privilege.
The anvil(8) server maintains an in-memory table with information about
recent clients requests. No persistent state is kept because standard
system library routines are not sufficiently robust for update-inten-
sive applications.
Although the in-memory state is kept only temporarily, this may require
a lot of memory on systems that handle connections from many remote
clients. To reduce memory usage, reduce the time unit over which state
is kept.
DIAGNOSTICS
Problems and transactions are logged to syslogd(8) or postlogd(8).
Upon exit, and every anvil_status_update_time seconds, the server logs
the maximal count and rate values measured, together with (service,
client) information and the time of day associated with those events.
In order to avoid unnecessary overhead, no measurements are done for
activity that isn't concurrency limited or rate limited.
BUGS
Systems behind network address translating routers or proxies appear to
have the same client address and can run into connection count and/or
rate limits falsely.
In this preliminary implementation, a count (or rate) limited server
process can have only one remote client at a time. If a server process
reports multiple simultaneous clients, state is kept only for the last
reported client.
The anvil(8) server automatically discards client request information
after it expires. To prevent the anvil(8) server from discarding
client request rate information too early or too late, a rate limited
service should always register connect/disconnect events even when it
does not explicitly limit them.
CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
On low-traffic mail systems, changes to main.cf are picked up automati-
cally as anvil(8) processes run for only a limited amount of time. On
other mail systems, use the command "postfix reload" to speed up a
change.
The text below provides only a parameter summary. See postconf(5) for
more details including examples.
anvil_rate_time_unit (60s)
The time unit over which client connection rates and other rates
are calculated.
anvil_status_update_time (600s)
How frequently the anvil(8) connection and rate limiting server
logs peak usage information.
config_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf con-
figuration files.
daemon_timeout (18000s)
How much time a Postfix daemon process may take to handle a
request before it is terminated by a built-in watchdog timer.
ipc_timeout (3600s)
The time limit for sending or receiving information over an
internal communication channel.
max_idle (100s)
The maximum amount of time that an idle Postfix daemon process
waits for an incoming connection before terminating voluntarily.
max_use (100)
The maximal number of incoming connections that a Postfix daemon
process will service before terminating voluntarily.
process_id (read-only)
The process ID of a Postfix command or daemon process.
process_name (read-only)
The process name of a Postfix command or daemon process.
syslog_facility (mail)
The syslog facility of Postfix logging.
syslog_name (see 'postconf -d' output)
A prefix that is prepended to the process name in syslog
records, so that, for example, "smtpd" becomes "prefix/smtpd".
Available in Postfix 3.3 and later:
service_name (read-only)
The master.cf service name of a Postfix daemon process.
SEE ALSO
smtpd(8), Postfix SMTP server
postconf(5), configuration parameters
master(5), generic daemon options
README FILES
Use "postconf readme_directory" or "postconf html_directory" to locate
this information.
TUNING_README, performance tuning
LICENSE
The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.
HISTORY
The anvil service is available in Postfix 2.2 and later.
AUTHOR(S)
Wietse Venema
IBM T.J. Watson Research
P.O. Box 704
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
Wietse Venema
Google, Inc.
111 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10011, USA
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