[Mailman-Users] list too big?

[Brad Knowles]

At 2:57 PM -0500 2004/02/11, Dave  Stern - Former Rocket Scientist wrote:

>  Thanks for your help. The memory on this beast is maxed out at a screaming
>  512Meg. It's an IDE structure but we just put in an emergency PR for a 15Krpm
>  scsi disk for /var/spool/mqueue and found a source for cheap scsi cards.
>  I've also made it a cache-only nameserver.

	You also want a separate SCSI disk system for the mailman queue 
directories.

	You should get a copy of Nick Christenson's book _sendmail 
Performance Tuning_, and apply the recommendations from there.  This 
includes things like enabling filesystem journaling or softupdates 
(depending on the OS), mounting the filesystem "noatime", using 
striping+mirroring for the underlying disk subsystem (might require 
external drive arrays), etc....

	See also 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq04.011.htp>, 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq06.006.htp>, 
and 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq06.008.htp>.

	For MTA tuning tipes, see 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq06.002.htp>, 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq06.003.htp>, 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq06.004.htp>, 
or 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq06.005.htp> 
depending on whether you're running Exim, sendmail, postfix, or qmail 
(respectively).

>  If these things don't resolve it, I'm gonna have to break it up into perhaps
>  26 sublists (A-Z) and make the main list an umbrella list.

	That would help on the mailman side, but not the MTA.

>  Ultimately, we're gonna need a faster machine but layer 8 of the OSI model
>  (political) works slowly here ;)

	Spend your money on getting more RAM (or a machine that can 
handle more RAM), the more the better -- I'd go for 2-4GB or more, if 
possible.  Spend your money on getting an improved disk subsystem 
(e.g., an external high-speed drive array, or maybe even a 
solid-state disk).  Spend your time getting the rest of the software 
configuration right to make the best of what you have.


	If you see Gene Day any time soon, please tell him "hi" from me.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles at skynet.be>

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
     -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

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