Any easy ones for Linode?

I've used and enjoyed MailChimp enough that I'd hesitate to recommend any other service. (Indeed, if you examine the "Please Take This Short Survey" e-mail that Linode sent a few days ago, you will see it was sent via MailChimp.)

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Ah ok.

Well I just installed Dadamail, and when you try to upload more than about 1000 emails it times out. Can Mailchimp upload larger amounts?

Yep: http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/how-do- ... t-my-list/

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Well, I know it is supposed to, but so is DadaMail. But during the import, DadaMail stalls out and give a blank screen, almost as if the Linode can't keep up. The Linode graphs show that there is no load at all, however.

The Notes section towards the bottom of the KB article I linked to addresses that. If it does cause an issue, you can use the API and skip the whole web browser thing.

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I looked on the mailchimp page... they only list prices for using their servers.

MailChimp does use their own servers. You upload your list(s), setup your email content (they have templates or you can use your own HTML) and then send your emails. They manage the opt-outs, the new registrations (we do this via an ajax call from our websites) and provide great statistics.

We've used MailChimp for years. Each of our clients has a separate account. Most of them have small mailing lists and send once a month or less so the free account is a perfect fit for them.

MailChimp also lets you have sub-lists which is great for group specific announcements without having to maintain completely separate lists.

Ok how about an installable program that sits on a Linode? Once instealled it can send out 100,000+ emails a month, for just the monthly charge of the Linode.

DadaMail was working great until the cgi-bin folder mysteriously disappeared. Now it has to be rebuilt.

Why did that happen? That is a huge red flag that you need to look into.

Do you use backups?

Do you monitor your server to make sure it is secure? Have a firewall setup? Check your logs?

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Not sure how it happened. Dada was just installed for a few weeks and being tested. I had gone in to give it new passwords, then I restarted sendmail, and restarted the Linode, and then the cgi-bin was gone.

Was going to do a security check right after that, but now no need unless the mass mailer works (may have to re-image).

Had not used backup (extra charge, right?) because I did not even know if the server would work. I'll do a backup after it gets running again. And then a security check.

LINuser,
If you don't want to use Linode's backup service you can split up your disc space allotment and create a 'clone' of your production disc. This will give you a backup of the full installation & configuration. You'd still need to backup your mailing lists, databases, etc, but you'd have a fully working installation to spin up or clone.

We do this on test Linodes. I'll use 1/4 of the disc allotment and create a base install of what we want to test. Then I clone it. Once I have a clone I install whatever I wanted to test and just bang away at it. If I get it where I want it I clone that disc (leaving me with 3 disc images and enough space for a fourth just in case I want to try something else). Every time I hit a milestone I delete #3 and clone #2 again.

Sometimes I want to try different products (such as free control panels). I create #1 and clone it a few times. Then I boot #2 and install. Boot #3 and install. Then #4. It's a great way to create a backup - or try things out - without having set up multiple Linodes.

I was just starting to consider doing this. My current image is 100%; can it be re-sized to make room for cloning, without messing up our outbound sendmail (which is currently all that's on it) ?

The link below shows you the steps to resize your disk image. It says you can increase or decrease the size of your disk. I assume that you would lose data if you shrink it to a size below your currently used disk space.
https://library.linode.com/disk-images-config-profiles#sph_resizing-a-disk-image

You can check your disk space usage with this command:

df -h

You can always ask support about any potential problems when reducing the size of a disk image.


edit: typo, schmypo, I blame my keyboard

Ah, well it says:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs 48G 1.1G 44G 3% /
/dev/root 48G 1.1G 44G 3% /
devtmpfs 493M 0 493M 0% /dev
tmpfs 99M 184K 99M 1% /run
tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 249M 0 249M 0% /run/shm


Would you say it's safe to resize smaller?