On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 01:09:29AM -0800, Ori Bani wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 12:42 AM, Ralf Hildebrandt
> <ralf.hildebra...@charite.de> wrote:
> > * Ori Bani <orib...@gmail.com>:
> >> I'm curious to get feedback on the idea of mounting all the
> >> postfix queue directories on a faster media (SSD drive in
> >> this case).
> >>
> >> In my case, I have virtual maildirs under /var/spool/postfix
> >> and those would be relocated to elsewhere (onto slower normal
> >> media) because the faster (SSD) media isn't in a RAID
> >> configuration (slower media is).
> >
> > Why are you storing maildirs in the queue directory?
> 
> I think it is a legacy thing from a very old how-to.

Having recently written a Postfix howto, I reviewed quite a few 
others in the process. With few exceptions I found that they were 
written by people with a poor understanding of Postfix. This was 
especially true of the old, unmaintained howto documents.

> Note it's for virtual accounts, so no /home directories.

A virtual user should have a $HOME, but perhaps that is not what 
you're talking about. In my own system I happen to use
        virtual_mailbox_base = /home
because that filesystem has the most room for storage.

> What's the more standard place to put them if I may ask?

There is no standard, as shown by the default postconf(5) value of 
$virtual_mailbox_base. However there is the official Postfix 
VIRTUAL_README.html#virtual_mailbox document, which uses this:
        virtual_mailbox_base = /var/mail/vhosts

As hinted above, I suggest sticking with the official Postfix 
documentation. Look at third-party howtos for ideas, but you 
shouldn't rely on them for exact guidance. When their ideas don't 
mesh with what is in Postfix documentation, consider the entire 
document to be of dubious quality.

> >> Does that make any sense? Is there adverse risk putting the
> >> queue directories on non-RAID fast media? Am I right to think
> >> that that's where the most performance is to be gained?
> >
> > Yep.
> 
> Thanks.  Would it be OK to put everything in /var/spool/postfix
> on fast media or do only some directories benefit from the
> speed increase?

I wouldn't think it worth the trouble to try to separate actual 
queues from the few other files under /var/spool/postfix/. But then, 
I am not sure that there is an actual problem that this idea will 
solve. :)

We here tend to want to focus on real problems. If everything is 
working well, don't tinker. Postfix default settings generally are 
good; a competently-managed system's "postconf -n" should typically 
be very short.
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