    ANVIL(8)                                                              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

    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).

           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)
                  The mail system name that is prepended to the  process  name  in
                  syslog  records,  so  that  "smtpd" becomes, for example, "post-
                  fix/smtpd".

    SEE ALSO
           smtpd(8), Postfix SMTP server
           postconf(5), configuration parameters
           master(5), generic daemon options

    README FILES
           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

                                                                          ANVIL(8)