performance testing new server, results

[am.lists]

On 2/21/07, Chris Yuzik <itdept at fractalweb.com> wrote:
>I simply copied all of those queue files (about 4500) into
> /var/spool/mqueue.in. Mwahahaha.
>With all the features turned on, including
> fuzzyocr (cranked up), bayes and clamav, but spamassassin caching off,
> it seems to be averaging about 140 seconds per batch of 30. Server load
> is averaging 2.56 over last 15 minutes. So in past 20 minutes, it's
> handled about 2500 messages.

Chris,

Benchmarking performance like this is so difficult to get right. There
are so many variables. For one, you've hobbled all of the things that
the software can do to attain better performance. I sorta agree/sorta
disagree here. On one hand, it gives you total worst-case-scenario
numbers, but then on the other hand, you hope your server never has
those conditions to work under. (So you really don't know how well it
can perform, you only know how poorly it can perform.)

Here's a better question: What throughput numbers (Msgs/minute) do you
need to attain?

Under load, how did the box perform? Was it CPU-bound?
Memory-bound/swapping? Or was it pushing a limit on network bandwidth?
(I would assume you were NOT sending mail out during the test...)

Regards,

Angelo