high number of process in linux system

Question

the number of process in my system is high to 2819 and i have a check about it these process are all like this:

root     25305  3803  0 01:40 ?        00:00:00 crond
root     25306 25305  0 01:40 ?        00:00:00 [sadc] <defunct>
root     25307 25305  0 01:40 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sendmail -FCronDaemon
root     25308 25307  0 01:40 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/postdrop -r
root     25347  3803  0 01:50 ?        00:00:00 crond
root     25348 25347  0 01:50 ?        00:00:00 [sadc] <defunct>
root     25349 25347  0 01:50 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sendmail -FCronDaemon
root     25350 25349  0 01:50 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/postdrop -r
root     25389  3803  0 02:00 ?        00:00:00 crond
root     25390 25389  0 02:00 ?        00:00:00 [sadc] <defunct>
root     25391 25389  0 02:00 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sendmail -FCronDaemon
root     25392 25391  0 02:00 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/postdrop -r
root     25436  3803  0 02:10 ?        00:00:00 crond
root     25437 25436  0 02:10 ?        00:00:00 [sadc] <defunct>
root     25438 25436  0 02:10 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sendmail -FCronDaemon
root     25439 25438  0 02:10 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/postdrop -r
root     25478  3803  0 02:20 ?        00:00:00 crond
root     25479 25478  0 02:20 ?        00:00:00 [sadc] <defunct>
root     25480 25478  0 02:20 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sendmail -FCronDaemon
root     25481 25480  0 02:20 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/postdrop -r
root     25520  3803  0 02:30 ?        00:00:00 crond
root     25521 25520  0 02:30 ?        00:00:00 [sadc] <defunct>
root     25522 25520  0 02:30 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sendmail -FCronDaemon
root     25523 25522  0 02:30 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/postdrop -r
root     25562  3803  0 02:40 ?        00:00:00 crond

Answer 1

Obviously you have a cron job which runs every 10 minutes and starts some process which appears to be related to sending an email, and which then hangs.
Look at your crontab configuration with crontab -l to figure out what is wrong.