Re: NTMail Performance

Duane Schaub ( dschaub@terraworld.net )
Fri, 06 Feb 1998 13:52:12 -0600

I just installed JUCE for NTmail and now out of 35 current pop connections,
20+ are stuck on password and don't go away until the pop server times out
the connection. It seems that emer_ntm is not getting the response back
from the sql server. Interestingly, smtp seems to be OK as it is not
returning huge chunks of email (that I'm aware of). Atleast, there are no
errors in the logfile. But then again, the pop log file shows only an
ocassional error also... such as "bad username/password" for some user that
just checked mail.

I am wondering whether a missed user/pw is causing the dll to hang. Has
anyone considered creating a script to generate the file needed to run the
command line mail config from. This would be similar to running a unix
radius in that you would need to periodically generate the file and update
the registry, but performance should be greatly enhanced.

Duane.

At 01:50 PM 2/5/98 -0500, you wrote:
>We found that by establishing a trusted connection from NTMail to SQL at
>boot time, by using Explorer to map a network drive, and telling it to
>reconnect at reboot. The NT box statrs with an AutoAdminLogin with a
>username and password identical to that of an authorized user of SQL and
>the Emerald system. Thus, the CONNECTION is already established, and NO
>authentication needs to take place for a RADIUS request from that machine
>-- the machine is "trusted". This greatly reduces overhead and increases
>performance greatly.
>
>At 12:12 PM 2/5/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>We had the same problem, we found that replicating the emerald database on a
>>separate server just for NTMail to use helped 150%.
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Duane Schaub <dschaub@terraworld.net>
>>To: emerald@emerald.iea.com <emerald@emerald.iea.com>
>>Date: Thursday, February 05, 1998 12:11 PM
>>Subject: NTMail Performance
>>
>>
>>>I am getting poor performance from my NTmail/Emerald setup.
>>>
>>>NTMail is running on a machine with 128Mb ram/P200(Just a plain old 200)
>>>and IIS4 with a few domains. After running for a day or so, POP and SMTP
>>>occupy about 70-90 MB of RAM by themselves, and inetinfo user another 40Mb.
>>> It takes about 24 hours to reach these ram levels. Immediately after boot
>>>up, only about 71 Mb (including disk cache) is in use. I believe that the
>>>inetinfo size is due to IIS caching its web content.
>>>
>>>Anyway, SQL is on a different server p166/96Mb RAM. When a user checks POP
>>>mail, it takes 10-15 seconds for emer_ntm to retrieve the user info from
>>>the DB. It almost seems like it has to login to the SQL server or
>>>something like that. The SQL server only has about 10-15% CPU utilization
>>>and considerable idletime on the Harddrive. It appears to just be sitting
>>>there after the pop request has come in.
>>>
>>>Is this performance normal with NTmail? I have a number of users
>>>complaining that SOME of their incoming mail is bouncing back to the sender
>>>with invalid user errors. This is only some mail. Also, when checking pop
>>>mail sometimes users get "Invalid username/password". They can check again
>>>a few seconds later and it works. The problem is that some users
>>>immediately start playing with their system and screw it up. Then I spent
>>>the next half hour trying to fix them.
>>>
>>>Here's one for Dale.... Can you make an SQL script that will generate a
>>>file (like radius) that can bet run with the command line ntmail program to
>>>save the users to the ntmail registry. This will allow users to bypass the
>>>ntmail.dll and full utlilize the aliases, etc within emerald. If this can
>>>be done in an external program or as an SQL script, then I can schedule it
>>>to run periodically during the day. This will reduce the loading on the
>>>SQL server and reduce network traffic plus significantly enhance the
>>>reliability of the NTmail server since it won't rely on the ODBC
>>>connection... Which seems shaky at best.
>>>
>>>Duane.
>>>
>>>

>>>
>>>==========================================================================
>>>Duane Schaub, President |Terra World, Inc - Connecting The Planet
>>>Terra World, Inc. |Southeast Kansas' Leading Provider
>>>200 Arco Place, Suite 252 |Flat Fee - Never an hourly Charge
>>>Independence, Kansas 67301 |Where Service is Top Priority!
>>>Voice (316) 332-1616 |http://www.terraworld.net
>>>FAX: (316) 332-1451 |dschaub@terraworld.net
>>>===========================================================================
>>>
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>>> Emerald Mailing List listserver@emerald.iea.com
>>>
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------
>> Emerald Mailing List listserver@emerald.iea.com
>>
>>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Emerald Mailing List listserver@emerald.iea.com
>

==========================================================================
Duane Schaub, President |Terra World, Inc - Connecting The Planet
Terra World, Inc. |Southeast Kansas' Leading Provider
200 Arco Place, Suite 252 |Flat Fee - Never an hourly Charge
Independence, Kansas 67301 |Where Service is Top Priority!
Voice (316) 332-1616 |http://www.terraworld.net
FAX: (316) 332-1451 |dschaub@terraworld.net
===========================================================================