Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 22:23:57 -0800 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Scott Pilz" <tech@squid.tznet.com>, <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Mail Servers On Free-BSD Message-ID: <007201c08b4e$64525080$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.05.10101291131280.98370-100000@squid.tznet.com>
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> -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Scott Pilz > Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 9:41 AM > To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > Subject: Mail Servers On Free-BSD > > > I e-mailed Procmail's lists, and got a few answers, but I would like to > hear what other BSD-users/coders have to say, as they have helped me out > so much in the past. > > We need a new mail server. BSD platform, that will handle over 10k users. > > I do *want* to run Sendmail. As I am somewhat familer with it's inner > workings. I have tried QMail's SMTP however I just, ... do not like it > (perhaps I do not know it, perhaps I do not want to know it, but it's just > not in my taste right now). > > I have been told, that you do not want to run QPopper. It is soposedly > very very slow. > No - not true. Directory scans of a flat /var/mail are slow. > Now, I have seen this in fact. A SunOS server with QPopper and sendmail -- > they have all mail in /var/mail, and their mail server IS slow. Well, it's > no wonder that it is slow, as they have over 9k users in /var/mail. Would > that not slow down I/O to the point where it is noticible? > Worse is that SloLaris doesen't use a hashed bassword file, scanning a flat password file takes some time with that many users. > In QPopper, there is a way to make the structure like this: > > /var/mail/a/a/ > /var/mail/a/b/ > /var/mail/a/c/ > etc. so that the user 'test' would be put in: > /var/mail/t/e/test > > However, the local mail delivery agent, in this case procmail, I do not > belives supports this, so it's not going to work. > Not true. Procmail does support this with a compile option - read the procmail docs. > I was told by ProcMail's list that I should run qmail-pop3d as my pop3 > server, and on top of that, was told that is mearly because of the I/O > speed in /var/mail if everyone is there. > Bleahhhhhkkkkkkk!!!!!!!! They must be a bunch of Linux users that want their hands held. > HOWEVER.. In Qpopper and procmail, I can set it in such a way that they > will be delivered to their home directory instead: > > /var/mail/t/test <- Home for all t's > /var/mail/a/apple <-Home for all a's > > etc. > > Would this not basically do the exact same thing? Making things faster? > ???!?!?!?!!??!!? You want the hashed /var/mail, nothing will help if you have ten thousand files in one directory. Sheesh! And, furthermore on a production mailserver you MUST enable the option that leaves an empty user mail file after the mail has been downloaded - otherwise it's hell to troubleshoot when users call in and bitch that they lost all their mail, you want that file there so you can see the timestamp they last checked it. Otherwise your digging through page after page of log files. If the qmail baloney was so great the Unenet News servers would all be using that. Instead ever look at a newsserver spool? It's _all_ hashed directories. Those people know how to deal with LOTS of bitty files FAST. > Now let me tell you the box that I will have running ... (maybe > /var/mail/$user won't be so bad on this box anywyas? You let me know).. > 800mhz PIII > 1g Ram, > SCSI ultra-fast drives ... > RAID or stripe those drives to speed up access, and don't forget to turn on either softupdating on the mail spool, or mount it async. FreeBSD default is sync mount, which will kill disk access on a busy mail spool on a big mailserver. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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