[H-GEN] Spamassassin performance tests

Robert Brockway robert at timetraveller.org
Sat Apr 6 03:07:07 EST 2002


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Hi all.  A little while ago I become aware of a non-trivial overload that
Spamassassin can place on a mail server after I started sendmail on a box
(intending to use it as a voicemail server) only to have lots of mail
(100 items or so) dumped to my mail server.

100 simultaneous instances of spamassassin was having a significant effect
on my K6-233 fileserver.  Of couse the usual sendmail protections kicked
in , like refusal of further mail above a certain load, etc.

Anyway, eventually blake recovered but it was certainly a non-trivial
effect.

today I conducted some performance tests on Spamassassin vs its
spamc/spamd pair that are supposed to improve performance.  The different
is amazing.  It took maybe 200 messages running the conventional
spamassassin mechanism to drop my server blake to its knees.  As for
spamc/spamd well I'm part way through sending 2000+ emails to my test
users and so far it is doing it on its ear :)

Spamc/spamd is the way to go even for a box with moderate mail load.
Cheers,
	-Rob

-- Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert at timetraveller.org  ICQ: 104781119
   Linux counter project ID #16440 (http://counter.li.org)
   blake: up 86 days, 16:29, 10 users,  load average: 13.04, 9.93, 15.05
   "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" -Baha'u'llah


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