Server Loads/hardware standards

[Ken A]

Michael Kain wrote:
> Recently, I've gone from handling 40k messages /day to nearly 30k/hour.  
> The change has surfaced in the last month or so.
> 
> My current setup:
> Dual P3 1.13
> 1GB Ram
> FC5
> 
> Mail gateway running MS/clam/SA forwards scanned mail to internal mail 
> server (when there's a problem, users hit send/receive and that doesn't 
> cause an error..thus avoiding immediate call) I've used Julian's clam/sa 
> install script (which is awesome), and read posts relating to new 
> releases before upgrading/such.
> 
> With spamassassin enabled, the batch list grows and grows, was up to 95k 
> at one point.. disabling SA in MS cleared that out fairly quickly.  I've 
> wiped the SA/bayes temp files thinking bayes was backing up, however, it 
> seems that is not helping.
> 
> What I would like an opinion on is this... Am I trying to do too much 
> with the hardware that I currently have?  Or do I put together a bigger 
> beefier machine?

Are you:
1. Accepting mail to non-existent users? Don't!
2. Blocking any mail at your MTA using any rbls? Maybe do?
3. Running a local caching nameserver? Do!
4. Willing to buy more RAM? Do!

You can't process 30k messages an hour with MS/SA on the hardware you 
have, no. Max is probably somewhere around 10k/hr with somewhat beefier 
hardware.. Also, read the wiki entries about performance (running 
mailscanner incoming in tmpfs, etc..)

Ken A.
Pacific.Net

> -Mike