[Dovecot] Migration questions...

[Curtis Maloney]

Phillip Macey wrote:
>> Oh, we serve Maildir via Dovecot IMAP and 5000 messages per folder are 
>> a wimp. Problems start if the user:

> We are having some performancec issues on our server at the moment - all 
> I can put it down to is the large size of some maildirs. Eg. `ls -ld 
> Maildir/cur` might show a directory >20Mb in size for some of our users 
> (20-30k emails).

> (Performance issues == everything is running ok then all of a sudden 
> load avg goes through the roof, system cpu time goes crazy. Reading mail 
> grinds to a halt. Then everything recovers just as suddenly and the load 
> avg gradually returns to normal levels)

At first glance this sounds like a large folder is being indexed... are you 
using Dovecot deliver (which updates indices on deliver)?

>>> With maildir, and especially dovecot, this problem effectively
>>> disappears! That's the theory anyway, right?

> Theory is wonderful when it works :-)

In theory, Theory and Practice are the same.  In practice, this isn't always 
the case. :)


-- 
Curtis Maloney
cmaloney at cardgate.net