Postfix fails to start: Job for postfix.service failed because a timeout was exceeded

Symptoms

• Postfix fails to start:

  # systemctl start postfix.service
  Job for postfix.service failed because a timeout was exceeded. See “systemctl status postfix.service” and “journalctl -xe” for details.

• The Postfix mail queue has enormous size:

  # du -h –max-depth=0 /var/spool/postfix/
  30G /var/spool/postfix/

• Many emails are sent from the same sender in a short time:

  # mailq | grep [email protected] | head
  ED0079051218 1936 Tue Dec 26 10:25:26 [email protected]
  699C690519B8 1910 Tue Dec 26 10:25:27 [email protected]
  ED9669051219 1920 Tue Dec 26 10:25:26 [email protected]
  6B22C90519B9 1907 Tue Dec 26 10:25:27 [email protected]
  00F18905121A 1914 Tue Dec 26 10:25:27 [email protected]

Cause

Postfix fails to start because it cannot handle mail queue due to its size.

Resolution

1. Connect to the server via SSH;

2. Get MESSAGE_ID searching all mails with [email protected] as a sender with following command:

   # plesk sbin mailqueuemng –sender [email protected]

3. Remove mails from mail queue with its MESSAGE_ID with following command:

   # plesk sbin mailqueuemng –remove MESSAGE_ID

Alternatively, clear all mail queue according to the solution described in following article: How to clear the entire mail queue

Note: suspending the spamming account or setting an outgoing mail limit as described in the following article: How to set limitations on outgoing email messages in Plesk

Additional information

Many email messages are sent from PHP scripts on a server. How to find domains on which these scripts are running if Postfix is used?