[Mailman-Users] Large mailing lists

[Ross Vandegrift]

Hello everyone,

I've got some questions on a mailman server that's currently
performing non-optimally.

The server has four lists of about 200,000 recipients each.  They are
announce-only subscription lists that receive an occasional post.
Despite being low traffic, we have some consistency issues.

1) Organization: the current setup is designed so that a post to the
list does not generate overwhelming amounts of traffic at once.  The
list owner posts to each list spaced out by a few hours.

Does a setup like this give any real benefit, or just cause headaches?
Should we consider cutting up the lists further?

2) Recipient expansion: Currently, Mailman is running it's default
recipient expansion to postfix, which sends via SMTP.  Since the
postfix server only accepts mail locally, I have considered making
these changes:
	a) Remove any recipient restrictions from postfix smtpd
	b) Set Mailman to send a single message with all recipients
	c) Set Postfix to limit outgoing messages to <20 recipients

The goal of this is two fold:
	a) We have far more postfix expertise in-house than Mailman.
When there is an issue with Mailman, it's hard to solve.  We've got
more people capable of solving issues at the MTA level.
	b) Postfix keeps logs for each outgoing message, giving us an
easy way to keep track of a message that is being sent.

Does anyone see any pros/cons with this?

3) Comparison: Is anyone else running lists this large?  I've found
some list server usage surveys online, but most of them have "30,000
and above" as their largest class of addresses.

Thanks for the help!

-- 
Ross Vandegrift
ross at lug.udel.edu

"The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who
make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians
have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine
man in the bonds of Hell."
	--St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, Book II, xviii, 37