[Box Backup] Housekeeping hogging the server

[Jamie Neil]

Ben Summers wrote:
> I'm assuming you mean the bbstored server? Does this 100% CPU usage stop
> after a while?

Yes I mean the bbstored server, and no it doesn't stop (I let it run for
about 36 hours and then killed it).

>>> I therefore suspect that something else is happening here. If you could
>>> run a disc benchmark on the guest and the hardware on it's own, I think
>>> that would be a useful start to finding out what the problem is.

Here's the bonnie++ results from the guest:

Version  1.03       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input-
--Random-
                    -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block--
--Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP
/sec %CP
atlas            2G 24079  96 59315  18 18437   1 23517  69 66232   0
286.8   0
                    ------Sequential Create------ --------Random
Create--------
                    -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read---
-Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
/sec %CP
                 16  2525  97 +++++ +++ +++++ +++  2562  98 +++++ +++
8846  99

and on another box with a similar spec (no Xen):

Version  1.03       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input-
--Random-
                    -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block--
--Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP
/sec %CP
achilles         2G 33059  96 37044  15 25074   7 32828  83 51367   6
226.9   0
                    ------Sequential Create------ --------Random
Create--------
                    -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read---
-Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
/sec %CP
                 16  2552  97 +++++ +++ +++++ +++  2644  98 +++++ +++
8347  99

> Try OpenBSD's greylisting. Very efficient and effective. It deals with
> dodgy senders at the packet filter level, and could work as a filter in
> front of existing boxes.

We are using greylisting, but it's integrated into spamassassin with
sa-exim. The problem is with the bayes stuff which seems to be causing
SA to stop responding when we get a big flood of messages. I've had to
turn bayes off as a temporary fix.

>>> How much data is stored in the other accounts?
>>
>> Just a few Gb.
> 
> Just how big were these email accounts? (in terms of number of files)

There are quite a few mailboxes with more than 2000 emails (files) in a
single folder. Worst case is probably 5000 in one folder. Hard to say
accurately without writing some scripts to traverse the mail store.

-- 
Jamie Neil | <jamie@versado.net> | 0870 7777 454
Versado I.T. Services Ltd. | http://versado.net/ | 0845 450 1254