Question on reducing load on MailScanner machine

[Jonas A. Larsen]

> >  The previous thread about this didn't go very far because
> >  I suspect
> >  no-one is brave enough to actually try this.  Most of us
> >  just either
> >  optimise our installations to prevent the queue build-up
> >  in the first
> >  place or just add another box - it's the far less
> >  dangerous and the most
> >  travelled path.  That's also the reason it's not covered
> >  in the book.
> 
> I can add another mx, but would prefer to have a single entry point for
> email on the network.  I think I would upgrade to a single more
> powerful machine rather than adding additional boxes for incoming
> messages.  We're running a relatively slow single processor machine at
> the moment and have a backup server that has been powered off sitting
> under it.
> 
 Just to throw my 5 cents worth of knowledge in here, I think everybody
starts out considering how they can share the queue as it would provide a
perfect load balancing and a more secure setup (assuming u can mount some
storage that will be more stable than the local storage of each mailscanner
box)

However! I think more or less everybody ends up with 2 or more mailscanner
boxes with 2 or more mx records with an equal priority (thus load balancing
the mail pretty well) and on top of the mailwatch which also works great
with this kind of setup, where it uses XML RPC to pull a mail from the other
box if necessary (as when a user wants to release or view it via the web
interface)

And the best reason for doing it this way: You get a much more stable setup,
right now your whole mail flow is dependent on your 1 server not having
failed hardware, software update or anything else, it’s a huge single point
of failure. By using 2 boxes (and do note you can use "half as powerfull"
hardware as you would in a 1 machine setup, since the load is split.

So bottom-line, I think 99% of mailscanner users would recommend going with
a load balanced multi box setup.



Med venlig hilsen / Best regards
 
Jonas Akrouh Larsen
 
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