Is there a way to limit the amount of maildir folders a user can have? Also is there is hard limit on the amount of folders dovecot can handle? I have a user who has over 3000 folder (including subfolders) that is having issues with delays in loading, moving, and deleting messages. Thanks in advance Jeff N.
dunno about how DC does its quotas, but Berkely O/S filesystem quotas as implemented on IBM's AIX controls not only how much storage you can have but also how many inodes, with 1 inode per file or folder Jeffrey Nikoletich wrote:> Is there a way to limit the amount of maildir folders a user can have? > > Also is there is hard limit on the amount of folders dovecot can handle? I have a user who has over 3000 folder (including subfolders) that is having issues with delays in loading, moving, and deleting messages. > > Thanks in advance > > Jeff N. > >-- ==== Once upon a time, the Internet was a friendly, neighbors-helping-neighbors small town, and no one locked their doors. Now it's like an apartment in Bed-Stuy: you need three heavy duty pick-proof locks, one of those braces that goes from the lock to the floor, and bars on the windows.... ==== Stewart Dean, Unix System Admin, Bard College, New York 12504 sdean at bard.edu voice: 845-758-7475, fax: 845-758-7035
On 2009-12-07 11:24:20 -0800, Jeffrey Nikoletich wrote:> Is there a way to limit the amount of maildir folders a user can have? > > Also is there is hard limit on the amount of folders dovecot can > handle? I have a user who has over 3000 folder (including subfolders) > that is having issues with delays in loading, moving, and deleting > messages.are you sure it is not just a client problem? -- openSUSE - SUSE Linux is my linux openSUSE is good for you www.opensuse.org
Yes, We have reinstalled multiple times (OS and Client) with the same results. On Dec 7, 2009, at 11:57 AM, Marcus Rueckert wrote:> On 2009-12-07 11:24:20 -0800, Jeffrey Nikoletich wrote: >> Is there a way to limit the amount of maildir folders a user can have? >> >> Also is there is hard limit on the amount of folders dovecot can >> handle? I have a user who has over 3000 folder (including subfolders) >> that is having issues with delays in loading, moving, and deleting >> messages. > > are you sure it is not just a client problem? > > -- > openSUSE - SUSE Linux is my linux > openSUSE is good for you > www.opensuse.org
On Mon, 2009-12-07 at 11:24 -0800, Jeffrey Nikoletich wrote:> Is there a way to limit the amount of maildir folders a user can have?No.> Also is there is hard limit on the amount of folders dovecot can > handle? I have a user who has over 3000 folder (including subfolders) > that is having issues with delays in loading, moving, and deleting > messages.I guess you're using Maildir++, so all of the folders are in the one Maildir root directory? That's probably the main reason why it's slow. With v1.1+ you could switch to fs layout, so that the subfolders would no longer be in the root directory. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 197 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part URL: <http://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot/attachments/20091207/3bd5e9c8/attachment-0002.bin>
Thanks. Is there plans for folder quotas in the future? Also how would i change the layout of an existing maildir? # v1.1+ only: mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir:LAYOUT=fs Can I just change for that user and it will convert it? or does the folders have to by physically moved as well. Thanks in advance, Jeff N. On Dec 7, 2009, at 12:12 PM, Timo Sirainen wrote:> On Mon, 2009-12-07 at 11:24 -0800, Jeffrey Nikoletich wrote: >> Is there a way to limit the amount of maildir folders a user can have? > > No. > >> Also is there is hard limit on the amount of folders dovecot can >> handle? I have a user who has over 3000 folder (including subfolders) >> that is having issues with delays in loading, moving, and deleting >> messages. > > I guess you're using Maildir++, so all of the folders are in the one > Maildir root directory? That's probably the main reason why it's slow. > With v1.1+ you could switch to fs layout, so that the subfolders would > no longer be in the root directory. >
Timo Sirainen wrote:> On Mon, 2009-12-07 at 11:24 -0800, Jeffrey Nikoletich wrote: > >> Is there a way to limit the amount of maildir folders a user can have? >> > > No. > > >> Also is there is hard limit on the amount of folders dovecot can >> handle? I have a user who has over 3000 folder (including subfolders) >> that is having issues with delays in loading, moving, and deleting >> messages. >> > > I guess you're using Maildir++, so all of the folders are in the one > Maildir root directory? That's probably the main reason why it's slow. > With v1.1+ you could switch to fs layout, so that the subfolders would > no longer be in the root directory. > >Then, from a performance perspective, should fs layout be the recommended configuration for Maildir++ ? M.A.
On Mon, 2009-12-07 at 11:24 -0800, Jeffrey Nikoletich wrote:> Also is there is hard limit on the amount of folders dovecot can handle? I have a user who has over 3000 folder (including subfolders) that is having issues with delays in loading, moving, and deleting messages.Are you sure those problems are even caused by the number of folders? There are only two issues I can think of: 1) Client LISTs all folders, which can take a while to download. Clients don't usually do this very often. 2) Filesystem is being slow. If you're using filesystem with directory indexes (and most are nowadays indexed) I don't think 2) should be much of a problem. And I think even without indexes OS would have cached the directory entries in a way that accessing the same directory would always be fast. So have you looked at other potential problems, like if deleting messages is slow and deletion is done by move-to-Trash, does the Trash have tens of thousands of messages? And at least ext3 already limits the number of folders that can be created with Maildir++ to 31998. That's probably good enough as a folder quota. :) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 197 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part URL: <http://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot/attachments/20091207/92c0f83c/attachment-0002.bin>
I have been working with user to have them cut down on their folder list. the fs is ext3 and even when moving the user to own server, etc I get the slowdowns and email hangs. Thought it was a connection issue so I brought the users machine in to the DC with the same issues. It is just "weird" Jeff N. On Dec 7, 2009, at 2:00 PM, Timo Sirainen wrote:> On Mon, 2009-12-07 at 11:24 -0800, Jeffrey Nikoletich wrote: >> Also is there is hard limit on the amount of folders dovecot can handle? I have a user who has over 3000 folder (including subfolders) that is having issues with delays in loading, moving, and deleting messages. > > Are you sure those problems are even caused by the number of folders? > There are only two issues I can think of: > > 1) Client LISTs all folders, which can take a while to download. Clients > don't usually do this very often. > > 2) Filesystem is being slow. If you're using filesystem with directory > indexes (and most are nowadays indexed) I don't think 2) should be much > of a problem. And I think even without indexes OS would have cached the > directory entries in a way that accessing the same directory would > always be fast. > > So have you looked at other potential problems, like if deleting > messages is slow and deletion is done by move-to-Trash, does the Trash > have tens of thousands of messages? > > And at least ext3 already limits the number of folders that can be > created with Maildir++ to 31998. That's probably good enough as a folder > quota. :) >
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Mon, 7 Dec 2009, Jeffrey Nikoletich wrote:> Also is there is hard limit on the amount of folders dovecot can handle? > I have a user who has over 3000 folder (including subfolders) that is > having issues with delays in loading, moving, and deleting messages.I cannot believe that ext3 chokes on just 3000 directory entries in such situation. I would think that one would notice the same with 20,000 messages per mailbox. How about really use another mail client for testing, as Marcus suggested, e.g. some brain-dead MUA, that does not try to be smart, for example Alpine or Mutt :) Also, try to log the session, maybe the user watches all 3000 folders for changes. So they all will be selected in a (short?) period of time again and again. Maybe a firewall in between is casuing a throttle, because of too many connections or something? Regards, - -- Steffen Kaiser -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iQEVAwUBSx4RKnWSIuGy1ktrAQJF4Af/diS3UqhWWiJONM8SntptVn3UH0rLvT+p NoSYfS2/0aVTstuU6vGhntGPsGCPXmSRVuGbW+ERS4U/6C7V9JQuo8Fdf2aYjGKe 2U/LxaodeKBc/c7cZdf4Uthu0z8NScWZJU8nG23EK31e9nlcte0D/eHF132i2zPZ mw+ZxFdgveTA+V4hnRVbUO49mYu3EmePkdbCMwhPOGo9oX5tlgsLzWIuZ5aQ9eph 3bjhH9TPgpWDphEab79pDBjV3WeS5je27L5+58kwW7g3cGneL02BaNztu96w8BPd 9eF+YXVBX3QkbhG3xEwCDdSTrKBYjPF6w4hExMl6ifFHihMNpDi9sg==NK/w -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On Dec 8, 2009, at 12:41 AM, Steffen Kaiser wrote:> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > On Mon, 7 Dec 2009, Jeffrey Nikoletich wrote: > >> Also is there is hard limit on the amount of folders dovecot can handle? I have a user who has over 3000 folder (including subfolders) that is having issues with delays in loading, moving, and deleting messages. > > I cannot believe that ext3 chokes on just 3000 directory entries in such situation. I would think that one would notice the same with 20,000 messages per mailbox.Yeah... like i said... it is really "weird"> > How about really use another mail client for testing, as Marcus suggested, e.g. some brain-dead MUA, that does not try to be smart, for example Alpine or Mutt :)I have tried... macmail. outlook, thunderbird, entourage... I havent tried mutt but I will now.> > Also, try to log the session, maybe the user watches all 3000 folders for changes. So they all will be selected in a (short?) period of time again and again. Maybe a firewall in between is casuing a throttle, because of too many connections or something?I have an strace running on the process now just as Timo suggested.> > Regards, > > - -- Steffen Kaiser > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) > > iQEVAwUBSx4RKnWSIuGy1ktrAQJF4Af/diS3UqhWWiJONM8SntptVn3UH0rLvT+p > NoSYfS2/0aVTstuU6vGhntGPsGCPXmSRVuGbW+ERS4U/6C7V9JQuo8Fdf2aYjGKe > 2U/LxaodeKBc/c7cZdf4Uthu0z8NScWZJU8nG23EK31e9nlcte0D/eHF132i2zPZ > mw+ZxFdgveTA+V4hnRVbUO49mYu3EmePkdbCMwhPOGo9oX5tlgsLzWIuZ5aQ9eph > 3bjhH9TPgpWDphEab79pDBjV3WeS5je27L5+58kwW7g3cGneL02BaNztu96w8BPd > 9eF+YXVBX3QkbhG3xEwCDdSTrKBYjPF6w4hExMl6ifFHihMNpDi9sg=> =NK/w > -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----