Matt Quickest (but not cheapest!) way is to get Spamassassin off the email email onto a dedicated box. SA is a real CPU hog.
Other thing to look at is tuning SA (which is prob a good idea anyway). See following link for my recommendations.. http://wiki.mailscanner.info/doku.php?id=maq:index#getting_the_best_out_of_spamassassin contains some tuning tips... -- Martin Hepworth Snr Systems Administrator Solid State Logic Tel: +44 (0)1865 842300 > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Matt > Sent: 01 March 2008 18:49 > To: exim-users@exim.org > Subject: [exim] Speeding Up Exim > > > I just got a call from someone wanting to be able to send 50k email > > messages a second. Most of it in bursts of a few seconds long. It has to > > do with some kind of gaming application. I'm just trying to picture in > > my mind what kind of hardware could do that. > > I have an Directadmin based email/web server. Its based on CentOS > 32bit 4.4, Exim, Dovecot, Spamassassin-3.2.4, Clamav and etc. Maildir > based. > > Hardware is: > AMD64 Dualcore 3800+ just updated to 5600+ > 4Gbyte DDR2 > SATA2 500GB drive > > Normally load average is like 8 or less but at peak times I am seeing > it spike to like 100 area. Upgrading the CPU gained very little. I > am thinking I am disk I/O bottle necked. I have about 2000 email > accounts and according to eximstats at peak times I am seeing > "Messages received per hour" of 40K. > > I have added a few scripts hoping they would help. I now auto suspend > email accounts that have not been checked in 6 months. Few other > scripts for cleaning out old high scoring spam from mailboxes > infrequently checked. Also bounce based on a few blacklists at MTA > time. Cannot be too aggressive there else users complain. > Spamassassin does a very good job. Very rarely does a false positive > but does let some SPAM slip by. > > Any other ideas to speed it up at peak times? Hopefully without > starting from scratch with crud load of downtime. > > I wander if the SATA feature of NCQ would speed the disk I/O up but > there is likely no easy way to upgrade CentOS 4.x to do that. > > Matt > > -- > ## List details at http://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users > ## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/ > ## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/ ********************************************************************** Confidentiality : This e-mail and any attachments are intended for the addressee only and may be confidential. If they come to you in error you must take no action based on them, nor must you copy or show them to anyone. Please advise the sender by replying to this e-mail immediately and then delete the original from your computer. Opinion : Any opinions expressed in this e-mail are entirely those of the author and unless specifically stated to the contrary, are not necessarily those of the author's employer. Security Warning : Internet e-mail is not necessarily a secure communications medium and can be subject to data corruption. We advise that you consider this fact when e-mailing us. Viruses : We have taken steps to ensure that this e-mail and any attachments are free from known viruses but in keeping with good computing practice, you should ensure that they are virus free. Red Lion 49 Ltd T/A Solid State Logic Registered as a limited company in England and Wales (Company No:5362730) Registered Office: 25 Spring Hill Road, Begbroke, Oxford OX5 1RU, United Kingdom ********************************************************************** -- ## List details at http://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users ## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/ ## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/
