Hello,

I've got two Linodes 720, which I really think are too "big" for me. One hosts a bunch of LAMP websites, mostly quite-inactive blogs, and serves a secondary MX server. The other runs a Postfix mail service (spamassassin, clamav...), which won't be very busy if the SPAM rate wouldn't be so high; it additionally runs a Horde instance, and that's it.

So, I think that maybe Linode 720 is too much for my needs. The question is, how can I know which size would be perfect? What parameters should I look for?

Thanks in advance

which distro are you using.......


If ubuntu run:


apt-get update
apt-get install htop

then run:

htop

see how much memory your using.......if it is minimal then do a downgrade......my postfix, clam squirellmail runs around 208MB.....






also a good way to stop spam before your clam gets to it is to add the following to your /etc/postfix/main.cf


unknown_address_reject_code = 554
unknown_hostname_reject_code = 554
unknown_client_reject_code = 554

This reduces spam that has to get filtered.......a little.

Ooops, sorry. One is gentoo, the other is ubuntu.

Thanks for the tip of htop, didn't know about it.

htop in gentoo (the first, typical LAMP server) right now says:

Load: 0.53 0.57 0.27
Mem: 137/701 Mb
Swap: 30/1023 Mb

htop in ubuntu (the second, mail server) right now says:

Load: 0.72 0.43 0.26
Mem: 489/720 Mb
Swp: 17/255 Mb

I guess the first one is a little oversized.

I agree, the first one has plenty of room (overshot). Unless you plan on taking a load of hits, I would either consolidate and upgrade to the busier linode, or maybe consider a downgrade on the first one.



I think either will provide a cost savings.

_________________

I don't plan to be slashdotted in the near future

Anyway, I won't consolidate them, because I really want to have a secondary MX. It wouldn't be the first time I crash my servers during an upgrade...

So I'll downgrade it, after asking tech support how to proceed with minimal impact. And in the future, when I get some spare time, I might consolidate this LAMP server with my brand new, Kolab server, which is right now yawning...

P.S.: What a good idea this Kolab thing is!

Entirely your choice, of course, but worth pointing out that just being down a day shouldn't lose any mail - it should just queue, usually for three or four days before being rejected. OTOH, you won't *see* that mail until your server is back up, which may be your point.

_________________
The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the world.
-- seen on the net

Not really true. Spam engines tend not to queue emails and hence he might miss a lot of spam!

That's true, and installing postgrey was a big relief; however, it delays ham delivery, sometimes even for 24 hours, and I cannot afford this delay, so I uninstalled it.

Thanks for the tips!