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On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 11:18:41PM +0800, Feizhou wrote:
I would suggest otherwise. Your huge /var/spool/mail suggests that you plan to use the mbox format for storing mails. I suggest that you switch to maildir and therefore trash /var/spool/mail and allocate that lot to /home and use maildir to store your mails.
As I stated before, one of the best things about maildir is that you can use incremental backup procedures. So I second that idea, no matter if you are keeping the maildirs on /home or /var/spool/mail.
Keeping them under /home would seem the best. Everything is there. Need to delete? Bye bye /home/goner. But we have forgotten the 2k user part. It appears that this is best implemented using a virtual user/domain/whatever system.
I implemented that once using exim + Mysql + Courrier. Yes, it is MUCH easier to maintain once you have it all up and running. Adding and removing users (simply PHP webpage) was a nobrainer.
Is it really recomended (cost/benefit) to mix two different MTA's ? I never tried that. I just start on the idea that it would simply add too much complexity. Then again, I might be misinformed, and the benefits be enough to make it worth. Care you elaborate a little more on that one, please ?
It is a case of trying to get the best from both MTAs. A qmail system requires almost zero maintenance. There have been cases of people who install qmail, some without help while others requiring some help, and then forgetting how to do it after a couple or a few years of not even touching it. The only reason for these ones to install qmail again was because of a server replacement. This is for those who do not have to deal with a lot of spam.
I find it a liability to just leave an e-mail server like that. Putting asside the "qmail is 100% secure idea", which I really won't debate, you have to agree that qmail needs a lot of 3rd party software to work on an environment like that (vpopmail etc etc). And those require maintenance, not to mention the database backend.
Performancewise, I consider (from the tests I ran for Conectiva back in 2000) qmail the second fastest non-commercial MTA. The fastests being exim. Commercial solutions like S/MAIL will beat them all to the ground, and S/MAIL is the basis of Exim just like QMail is the basis for Postfix.
Let me make it plain once again: I'm not recomending exim for his e-mail server. Learning to get exim running "just right" is not easy. Exim 4 is very complex these days, specially if you add ACL to the mix. I used to edit sendmail.cf using VI (not vim), so I can recognize complexity when I see it :) The old saying goes that you can only consider yourself a network administrator if you ever edited sendmail.cf by hand once. If you did it twice, you are not a network admnistrator, you are a lunatic, and should be commited to a mental institution :)
Anyway, I think your solution, even tho it does have many merits, will add unneeded complexity to Alain's setup.
Let me also mention that I do think a multiple server solution is best, specially if you can, as you mentioned, separate incoming from outgoing queues.
qmail is simple, efficient and has a small footprint (...)
I won't argue about efficent and small footprint, specially the later, but simple it isn't.
The most simple (as in straightforward) MTA I've seen so far is postfix. And no, I never use it.
maintenance free and
comes with the best local delivery system available.
<flamewar invitation> Procmail ? Sure it does. But so does every other MTA :) </flamewar>
postfix on the other hand has plenty of features or essential items builtin, is not too hard to configure and also has a very convenient way of handling the queue.
We agree on more than we disagree.
Postfix is all that. It is not the best solution, but it is the one I recomend for non-experienced MTA admins.
Both come from security experts and those self-same men have got into the mta side of things. Why not put them together? The irony of course is that both men probably hate each other to bits.
Hating DJB is more common than not :)
Just telling postfix to send all incoming mails to the qmail queue should not be complex. Then you can manage the two on their own.
Despite the merits of qmail or the configuration you are proposing, I don't think it is the best solution for this particular user on this particular environment.
- -- Rodrigo Barbosa rodrigob@suespammers.org "Quid quid Latine dictum sit, altum viditur" "Be excellent to each other ..." - Bill & Ted (Wyld Stallyns)