Limit on number of emails sent per hour?

[nige1121]

is there a limit with the SMTP server on how many emails it can send within an our. our company sends a huge number of newletter but the queue just builds up, they are snet quick enough, or could this be a hardware / network bolleneck?

thanks

Nigel

 

[Stevehewitt]

None that I'm aware of. I'm guessing this is the SMTP server on Windows 2003 IIS6?




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[nige1121]

yes, we are using that. when a dispatch job is running the queues start to build up but the machine doesnt seem to be under too much strain, the CPU isnt maxing out. it is connected to the firewall by a 100mbs NIC and the firewall is connected to a hight speed link, 4meg i think.

can you suggest anymore places to look that could be causing the issue?

many thanks

Nigel

 

[jkupski]

What kind of disks/controller does this machine have? How much RAM? Those are almost always going to be your bottleneck when it comes to SMTP traffic. If this machine has like 256MB of ram and IDE disks, this is probably your problem.

Alternatively, have you considered a dedicated device built for doing exactly what you want?

http://www.ironport.com/products/ironport_c300d.html

 

[nige1121]

the machine has 786mb RAM but is using an IDE disk. do you know a rough figure for max emails sent per hour out of a fast and powerful server and not a dedicated device?

thanks

Nigel

 

[jkupski]

do you know a rough figure for max emails sent per hour out of a fast and powerful server and not a dedicated device?

The device I linked to claims it can do 700k emails per hour. I've never made use of the win2k3 SMTP server, so I can't give you any ideas of what sort of performance you can expect. I do have a postfix server (15k RPM disks SCSI disks in a RAID1, 1GB RAM) running anti-spam and anti-virus software that, last time I stress tested it, handled over 25k messages per hour. Without the overhead of the anti-spam/virus software, performance would be significantly greater--at least 3x.

What do your real world numbers look like? How many messages are you sending, and how long does it take for the last of them to clear your queue? If you're expecting a hundred thousand messages per hour, maybe you have unrealistic expectations?

 

[nige1121]

we are looking at sending 500,000+ an hour and it takes a few days to clear the queue. it is currently sending 15k an hour.

what is the device you are using to send 700k/hour, i think that would be ideal for us?

many thanks

Nigel

 

[jkupski]

we are looking at sending 500,000+ an hour
...
it is currently sending 15k an hour.

Heh, yeah, that's just not going to happen with a general purpose MTA--and particularly not a windows based MTA. Given you're using IDE disks, the 15k per hour number doesn't really surprise me.

Also, keep in mind that you're going to need more than that soda straw of a 4mbit link you mention if you actually want to send out half a million emails per hour. Assuming your average message size is 10k, you're looking at about 5gb of traffic per hour--that's over 10mbit/sec. And remember, this is dedicated to your outgoing email. You will need more for incoming email, plus whatever other bandwidth needs your business has.

I'm guessing your 4mbit link is DSL--and DSL won't cut it, because the speeds aren't guaranteed. At a dead minimum, you're going to need a frac DS3 (at least 10 channels) and an SLA that says you're guaranteed all of it. Expect pricing starting at $5k/month if you're in a major metro area. Expect alot more if you're out in the boonies. And this is assuming your average message size is 10k. 25k and you're looking at a full DS3 just for your outgoing email. 100k, and you're looking at an OC-3. Have you considered outsourcing this?

what is the device you are using to send 700k/hour, i think that would be ideal for us?

I'm not personally using it, so I can't give you any first hand feedback. The folks at Ironport will be happy to help you, though (I'm pretty sure they'll give you an eval unit for 30 days.)

Again:

http://www.ironport.com/products/ironport_c300d.html

 

[nige1121]

i think the company want to keep it in house at the minute. thankyou very much for your help and suggestions, its exactly what we wanted to know. hopefully now we can act on this and get things running.

many thanks

Nigel

 

[jkupski]

Wish you the best of luck. Please reply with your results--I'm interested to see what solution you choose, how things turn out for you, what headaches you run into, etc.

 

[nige1121]

no probs

thanks again

Nigel