[Mimedefang] SA/MIMEDefang performance tweaking

[David F. Skoll]

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004, Chris Gauch wrote:

> Any further suggestions for setting timeouts/memory limits in the mimedefang
> init script? I do use the mimedefang multiplexor, works fine.

The most important things you can do follow.  You've probably done the top
three:

- Put /var/spool/MIMEDefang on a ramdisk
- Use the embedded Perl interpreter
- Limit the size of messages you scan with SpamAssassin to around 50kB or so
- Try to avoid network tests -- network latency can cause Sendmail and
  MIMEDefang processes to pile up very quickly.
- Try to avoid anything that serializes scanning (like the SA Bayes locking).
  In CanIt, we use a proper database (PostgreSQL) that has very fine-grained
  locking, so you don't need to write-lock entire files.

But really, your hardware (P-III @750MHz) is a bit underpowered - your
volume is 200,000 messages/day, and that's borderline overload for
that hardware.  A dual Xeon with 2.4GHz processors should easily
handle 600,000 messages/day.

Regards,

David.