MailScanner load

[Kevin Miller]

Daniel Maher wrote:
> I had three machines running MailScanner, doing around 500,000 mails
> per day across the group.  Load was constantly around 20, and mail
> delays were rampant.  
> 
> Then I subscribed to the TrendMicro RBL, and integrated LDAP for
> destination verification at the MTA layer.  The amount of mail that
> actually reaches MailScanner has been reduced by about 92% (not a
> typo, actual tracked statistic).   
> 
> The moral of the story is this: Adding more hardware is one thing. 
> Tweaking MailScanner is another.  But actually taking steps to
> eliminate spam at the earliest possible point - that's where you'll
> find real performance improvements.   

I agree with Daniel here.  Not sure if the OP is running Postfix or
sendmail (too lazy to go back and look) but I saw a tremendous drop in
the number of inbound messages getting past my MTA just turning on
greet_pause in sendmail.  Anything that can stop the spam messages
during the handshaking will lighten the load on your servers
considerably...


...Kevin
-- 
Kevin Miller                Registered Linux User No: 307357
CBJ MIS Dept.               Network Systems Admin., Mail Admin.
155 South Seward Street     ph: (907) 586-0242
Juneau, Alaska 99801        fax: (907 586-4500