From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Apr 9 22:52:47 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6CB8916A400 for ; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 22:52:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from scrappy@hub.org) Received: from hub.org (hub.org [200.46.204.220]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E416743D45 for ; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 22:52:46 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from scrappy@hub.org) Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.144]) by hub.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 818A062C9D4; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 19:52:46 -0300 (ADT) X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at hub.org Received: from hub.org ([200.46.204.220]) by localhost (av.hub.org [200.46.204.144]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id sRMTidQ-z21h; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 19:52:41 -0300 (ADT) Received: from ganymede.hub.org (blk-222-82-85.eastlink.ca [24.222.82.85]) by hub.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 68E9B62C9A9; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 19:52:45 -0300 (ADT) Received: by ganymede.hub.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id AABC53E422; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 19:52:45 -0300 (ADT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ganymede.hub.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A69F435E1D; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 19:52:45 -0300 (ADT) Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 19:52:45 -0300 (ADT) From: "Marc G. Fournier" To: Bill Moran In-Reply-To: <20060409105550.0620530a.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com> Message-ID: <20060409195020.T1096@ganymede.hub.org> References: <443731E5.9030209@greenmeadow.ca> <20060408074034.200f77a1.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com> <20060409002843.B1096@ganymede.hub.org> <20060409105550.0620530a.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: duane@greenmeadow.ca, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: OT - Scalable email server solution needed X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2006 22:52:47 -0000 On Sun, 9 Apr 2006, Bill Moran wrote: > "Marc G. Fournier" wrote: > >> On Sat, 8 Apr 2006, Bill Moran wrote: >> >>> One advantage of Maildir over mbox and the Cyrus db (that, for some >>> reason, I seldom see touted) is that you can make a safe backup of a >>> Maildir without shutting down the SMTP, POP, or IMAP server. With both >>> mbox and the Cyrus mail system, you have to shut the mail system down to >>> back up the mail boxes. >> >> Why with Cyrus IMAPd? I just had a major hardware failure, had to restore >> 30 mail spools from backup, all of which were 'backed up live', and the >> only thing I had to do once restored was run the 'reconstruct' command to >> make sure the various databases were sync'd up ... and the reconstruct >> command can be run while the system is live too ... > > I have only a small amount of experience with Cyrus. However: > http://cyrusimap.web.cmu.edu/twiki/bin/view/Cyrus/Backup > > Based on that document, it appears as if you're dodging the bullet with > backups. My interpretation is that Cyrus keeps mailboxes in some sort > of db file. If a db file is being modified while you're backing it up, > the backed up version will be inconsistent, thus the entire mailbox > unusable. Agreed, but this db file is stored within the maibox itself, and which is what Cyrus has a 'reconstruct' command to rebuild ... so, after a restore, the first thing you run in 'reconstruct' to make sure you database(s) match the mailbox ... > Compare this to Maildir, where each message is a seperate file. If > you're backing up during access to a mailbox, a single message could end > up corrupt, but this will not affect the rest of the mailbox. Oh, wait, I misunderstood your first paragraph ... Cyrus IMAP stores its individual mail messages in a seperate file (old 'mh' kinda thing), but there is a db file that maintains the 'state' informatin for the folder (what messages have been read, marked deleted but not purged, etc) ... ---- Marc G. Fournier Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org) Email: scrappy@hub.org Yahoo!: yscrappy ICQ: 7615664