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Knowledge base

PMTA knowledge base›API endpoint§ 5.9

Sending addresses that have a queue

/vmtas
Who is busy with what

Returns sending addresses that currently have mail in the queue, by number of recipients in descending order.

The call is GET /vmtas?format=json (or xml). The manual suggests taking one address’s queues through /queues with the queue=*/address-name parameter.

This is also a top: the length is set by http-default-max-items, ten lines by default.

It shows how addresses work, not their settings: an address without mail in the queue does not get here at all.

Access is decided by http-access based on the address the request came from — the monitor level is enough for reading. The key from http-api-key in the X-API-Key header grants full access from any address.

The main trap is looking here for all node addresses. An address with an empty queue does not get into the response: an idle one and a nonexistent one look the same — by their absence. This endpoint does not give a list of addresses defined in the configuration.
What the Hub does. It asks — the “PMTA monitoring” screen takes this endpoint together with /status, /queues, /domains and /jobs with the length maxItems=1000, that is, all addresses that have a queue, and adds the addresses the Hub created itself.
Recommended values

What to ask this endpoint:

Question This one or not
which addresses are busiest now yes
all addresses with mail in the queue no — show vmtas: the command defaults to “all”
one address’s queues no — /queues with queue=*/address-name
what happened yesterday no — that is accounting
The “only with mail in the queue” filter, the order, the list length and the way to take one address’s queues come from the manual (§ 5.9, § 3.3.1.58.23, § 6.3.21). The split of questions is ours.
Example configuration
# busy sending addresses and the queues of one of them
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:8080/vmtas?format=json'curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:8080/queues?format=json&queue=*/vmta1'
The second line is what the manual calls sending address details: there is no separate endpoint for them.
yellow — — directive names, blue — blocks. They are highlighted the same way in the text of the card.
Compatibility
PowerMTA 6.0
described in the manual of this version · platform: any
The vendor does not state the first version for every directive — there is no note here. The name also appears in the 5.0 edition of the manual.
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Related entries

2 relations

Works together with

Queues with the most recipientsA neighboring catalog entry. § 5.9

Can be replaced by

Sending addressesThe screen that shows the same thing to a human. § 5.9

How to check on the node
Compare the top with the full list in the console:
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:8080/vmtas?format=json' | head -60
pmta show vmtas
The command prints all addresses by default, while the endpoint’s response is the top; the difference in the number of lines is not a data mismatch.
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What else to read

3 articles

◇Four ways to say “slower”Messages, data volume, connection rate and number of connections — each has its own limit, and each has a “per source address” variant and a backoff mode twin.◇Warm-up built into the engineA warmed-up address hands the first N messages of the day for each receiver to its cold partner; the partner sends them itself and builds history.◇The sending address — what it is made ofA named set of everything that is a property of the address: which IP the message leaves from, how the node introduces itself, what it signs with and how fast it sends.

In the Hub
Cost of a mistake
safe: a wrong value breaks nothing
Scenarios
Address warm-up