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"This book is great. Nick covers a wide range of materials--everything from how to architect the mail system and what disks to buy to how to configure your router. This book should be a basic reference for anyone who needs to get down into the guts of a sendmail-based system and make it shine ."-Eric Allman, the creator of sendmail and Chief Technical Officer, Sendmail, Inc.

As email traffic continues to increase, system administrators must be able to guarantee that their email servers can deliver reliable performance today and bear larger loads tomorrow. sendmail Performance Tuning is a practical guide to building, tuning, and testing email servers based on sendmail to function more efficiently , handle more messages, and resist both accidental and malicious load- related incidents.

Featuring sendmail 8.12 (and earlier versions), the book begins with an introduction to sendmail and performance tuning. Author Nick Christenson then describes best practices for building, installing, and maintaining a system and details proven techniques for tuning email relaying, reception , and sending. This strategic guide to configuration and security is followed by precise directions for managing bottlenecks and load testing. By the book's end, readers should know exactly how to optimize system performance.

Key topic coverage includes:

• A detailed description of the step-by-step operations that occur during email transmission and reception

• How to send and store email most efficiently

• What the performance characteristics of POP and IMAP are

• How to determine which sendmail configuration parameters might improve performance

• How to locate and eliminate bottlenecks

• Methods and pitfalls in testing email servers before they are installed in a production environment

• Whether you are looking to solve an immediate problem or gain a deeper understanding of email servers, sendmail Performance Tuning provides clear guidance and valuable insight.

•	Table of Contents

sendmail Performance Tuning By Nick Christenson     Publisher : Addison Wesley Pub Date : September 13, 2002 ISBN : 0-321-11570-8 Pages : 256 Copyright     Praise for sendmail Performance Tuning     Preface     Chapter 1.  Introduction       Section 1.1.  Performance Tuning Examples       Section 1.2.  sendmail Versions Covered       Section 1.3.  Definitions       Section 1.4.  Email Server Tasks       Section 1.5.  Tuning Isn't Always Necessary       Section 1.6.  Not So Fast . . .       Section 1.7.  Email System Profiling       Section 1.8.  General Tuning Ideas       Section 1.9.  Summary         Chapter 2.  sendmail Introduction       Section 2.1.  Obtaining sendmail       Section 2.2.  Building sendmail       Section 2.3.  Creating a .cf file       Section 2.4.  Why Use M4?       Section 2.5.  System Setup       Section 2.6.  Summary         Chapter 3.  Tuning Email Relaying       Section 3.1.  What Happens During Relaying       Section 3.2.  Synchronization       Section 3.3.  Filesystems       Section 3.4.  File Space       Section 3.5.  Networking       Section 3.6.  Summary         Chapter 4.  Tuning Email Reception       Section 4.1.  What Happens During Email Reception       Section 4.2.  Recipient Verification       Section 4.3.  Storage Systems       Section 4.4.  Disks       Section 4.5.  Solid State Disks       Section 4.6.  POP Tuning Specifics       Section 4.7.  Message Store Hashing       Section 4.8.  IMAP Tuning Specifics       Section 4.9.  Summary         Chapter 5.  Tuning Email Sending       Section 5.1.  Mailing Lists       Section 5.2.  Command-Line Message Generation       Section 5.3.  Draining Queues       Section 5.4.  Another Mailing List Strategy       Section 5.5.  SMTP PIPELINING       Section 5.6.  More Notes on Mass Mailing       Section 5.7.  Summary         Chapter 6.  Configuration, Security, and Architecture       Section 6.1.  Configuration       Section 6.2.  Security and Performance       Section 6.3.  Other General Strategies       Section 6.4.  Summary         Chapter 7.  Finding and Removing Bottlenecks       Section 7.1.  Kernel Parameters Run Amok       Section 7.2.  The Quick Fix       Section 7.3.  Tools       Section 7.4.  syslog       Section 7.5.  Removing Bottlenecks       Section 7.6.  Summary         Chapter 8.  Load Generation and Testing       Section 8.1.  Test System Setup       Section 8.2.  Testing Tools       Section 8.3.  Load Testing Pitfalls       Section 8.4.  Summary         Chapter 9.  Conclusion     Bibliography