Matt wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> We've got two relay servers setup (relay1 and relay2) and its working
> fine, but the mail coming in is amazing.  I'm glad we went with the two
> relay server solution instead of everything on one box.
>
> Each of these relay servers is a 3 GIG processor with 1 GB ram.

> Today, the servers each have about 500 messages in the mail spool.  The 
> load averages are still under 2.0, not bad (1.6 - 1.8 hovering), and 
> CPU/Mem is OK ... its just not processing them fast enough.

> Any other ideas?

One thought is to thwart the common practice of spammers that target
only the secondary MX.

you may have something like:

10 MX server1.example.com
20 MX server2.example.com

for domains using server1 as primary

and

10 MX server2.example.com
20 MX server1.example.com

for domains using server2 as primary.

Have you considered doing something like this:

10 MX server1.example.com
15 MX dummy.example.com
20 MX server2.example.com

and

10 MX server2.example.com
15 MX dummy.example.com
20 MX server1.example.com

where dummy can be either a real host (with valid A and  rDNS records) that
simply does not listen on port 25 (or the device at that IP address
is dead or nonexistent) so the sending server times out, or
possibly a record that points to a nonexistent host with no A record.
I'm not sure which is more appropriate to do. I use the first method, and I
am noticing a 25% reduction in traffic on both my primary and
(now) tertiary servers since I implemented this last Sunday. I would hope
that a legitimate server will try the tertiary server if the primary
and secondary are both unresponsive, but even if they don't, they should
hopefully queue the mail long enough to get the primary back up and running.

There has been talk on the Postfix list about having a dummy primary
MX, as opposed to a dummy secondary, but I personally have to believe
this may punish legitimate servers somewhat, so I chose not to go that
route.

I realize this has only been in place for a few days, but the results
have been consistent so far.

Thoughts?

Gary V



-------------------------------------------------------
SF.Net email is Sponsored by the Better Software Conference & EXPO
September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle Practices
Agile & Plan-Driven Development * Managing Projects & Teams * Testing & QA
Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf
_______________________________________________
AMaViS-user mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/amavis-user
AMaViS-FAQ:http://www.amavis.org/amavis-faq.php3
AMaViS-HowTos:http://www.amavis.org/howto/

Reply via email to