New server request

[Glenn Steen]

On 08/04/2008, DAve <dave.list at pixelhammer.com> wrote:
> Currently we get hit with 200k to 300k connections a day that hit an RBL. We
> see 15k to 25k pipeline attempts. We spam scan almost 50% of our mail and we
> Virus scan everything that comes in. We process 4gb of mail a day on two
> servers, total around 50k to 65k message we actually deliver. We process
> 16,908 whitelist and 14,348 blacklist entries from MailWatch.
>
>  Mail delivery for our clients *INCLUDES* outbound scanning and filtering
> through my smtp servers (different hardware) and coming back in through my
> MailScanner servers.
>
>  I can get that done in 5 minutes round trip time for a message. 90% of that
> time is spent in the MS server, queues, waiting for pickup, etc. I think
> that is pretty darned good.
>
>  That is apparently not good enough. Every month or so I get told that mail
> delivery in incredibly slow and I need to look at the servers. I do, and
> every message I check takes around five minutes.
>
>  I need a recommendation for the root'n toot'nist, rockem sockem, nuklear
> powered, rocket fuel fed servers money can buy. I want to push a batch of 30
> messages through a full featured install of SA, Clamav, and local rulesets
> in less than 5 seconds. Tops. When my sales director hits send in his
> outlook, I want the message to deliver so fast his laptop jumps from his
> desk.
>
>  I think I need striped SAS disks with 15k spindles, four CPUs, and 16gb of
> ram. I am open to realistic suggestions, though humor is still welcome. I
> intend to submit a quote this week.
>
>  Thanks,
>
>  DAve
>
I'd look long and hard at where you're time is spent ATM... HW can
only solve HW type problems:-).

For instance.... Making sure you only use "feeded" BLs (meaning only
query to local copy) would probably be ... good.
Having your MailWatch database non-local to the machine... might tip
you either way (cheaper to buy two boxes with semi-extreme HW, instead
of one monster).

I suppose you already do most of the "normal" tricks, like tmpfs,
caching nameserver, perhaps noatime on selected filesystems etc?


Cheers
-- 
-- Glenn
email: glenn < dot > steen < at > gmail < dot > com
work: glenn < dot > steen < at > ap1 < dot > se