SpamAssassin running slow

[Paul Crittenden <cr...@simpson.edu>]

I'm running SpamAssassin 3.0.1 on a Compaq Alpha running Tru64-Unix, 
sendmail 8.12.10. I have been running SA for about 6 - 8 months on a few 
test accounts with great success. I tried to set it up so it would filter 
all of my system email for about 2500 accounts. When I set it up email in 
the queue start to back up. For instance when I started it I had 20 items 
in the queue and after I started SA the number went to 130 in about 30 
minutes. Anything I sent then appeared to be being worked on but they 
couldn't be sent.
After I stopped SA then everything cleared out of the queue in about 10 
minutes.

Any help would be appreciated.

Paul Crittenden
Computer System Manager
Simpson College
email: crittend@simpson.edu
Phone: (515)961-1680

  "You don't have to attend every argument you're invited to."

Re: SpamAssassin running slow

[Matt Kettler <mk...@evi-inc.com>]

At 04:52 PM 11/15/2004, Paul Crittenden wrote:
>I'm running SpamAssassin 3.0.1 on a Compaq Alpha running Tru64-Unix, 
>sendmail 8.12.10. I have been running SA for about 6 - 8 months on a few 
>test accounts with great success. I tried to set it up so it would filter 
>all of my system email for about 2500 accounts. When I set it up email in 
>the queue start to back up. For instance when I started it I had 20 items 
>in the queue and after I started SA the number went to 130 in about 30 
>minutes. Anything I sent then appeared to be being worked on but they 
>couldn't be sent.
>After I stopped SA then everything cleared out of the queue in about 10 
>minutes.

How are you calling SA? just as spamassassin in procmail, or are you using 
spamd, or an integration tool like mimedefang?

How you call SA is a VERY critical detail to performance. It's hard to make 
suggestions other than broad generic suggestions:

         if you're using any add-on rulesets, consider deleting all the 
large ones (any .cf file over 256k can be a problem and should be carefully 
tested for load impact on your system prior to deployment)

         if you have limited CPU power and ram, consider disabling the AWL 
and/or bayes.

         if you have slow network access consider disabling RBLs.

There's lots of specific suggestions however:

         if you're calling spamassassin via procmail, switch to using spamc 
in procmail and start spamd. spamc/spamd is MUCH faster than plain 
spamassassin.

         if you're using spamd,  tune the -m parameter to suit the amount 
of memory you have. Too many children and you exhaust memory and swap. Too 
few and you're not going as fast as you could.