virtualizing scalix and spam question

[bangsters]

Hi guys.

Between VMWare and Xen, which would you recommend for scalix and why? I currently use vmware server, but I'm wondering if Xen is actually more efficient and faster.

Second, when Scalix is installed, it does not come with anti spam and antivirus right? Which do you use and how do you integrate it with scalix? I currently don't use an anti spam in my scalix virtual server because my mail is forwarded from my main mail server to my scalix server and the main server already has spamassassin. However, if I want to bypass the main server and use my scalix box as the mailserver, which would you recommend? spamassassin? I still get junk mail with this lol....

Thanks

[racmar]

I also use vmware, but am expecting to look at Xen sometime this year. I'm waiting until the 3.1 comes out so it can virtualize Windows w/o windows being modified. Currently, I've had no problems /w vmware, and I backup the ENTIRE /var/opt ( which is a separate partition ). I do NOT like the lack of ease /w backing up the scalix mail store. I would love it if scalix created a decent backup solution, but I'm happy /w the solution I have for now.

I currently use a product called SpamTitan http://www.spamtitan.com/. They have a vmware image, couldn't be simpler. It is not free, but the cost is very reasonable for a small business. We've been using it for about 6 months, and the support is wonderful. It pushes all the spam administration off to the users, so it frees up a lot of my time.

[bangsters]

thanks for the reply. I am not familiar with that spam software. does it integrate with scalix?

[racmar]

It is an email gateway. It would run as an entirely separate virtual machine. It processes email, looking for spam and viruses, and then hands it off to your mail server, in this case scalix. It only integrates /w scalix by either imap or ldap lookup. The users have accounts, in fact, the same username and password that scalix uses.

Are you setting up for multiple people, or just a couple of accounts? It is really only useful for more that 5 or so accounts ( I would guess ).

[michaelbishop]

I used to run Scalix 10 on RHEL on VMware. It was OK, but it consumed a good bit of resources. Once XenSource came out, we used the migration tool they have and moved the RHEL server to XenSource. We've been running Scalix 11 on RHEL on XenSource 3.1 for a few months now without any problems. I love the admin console and being able to see the resource usage at a glace.

We liked it so much we became a XenSource partner and have started hosting Virtual Machines (VM). We are getting ready to begin selling hosting services with it. One service we will be selling is running Scalix on top of RHEL. With the idea that the VM is owned by the customer. So there is an initial cost (~$300) to purchase RHEL and get the server up and running. The difference from other hosts is that they own the VM. So if they leave us, they can take their fully configured server with them. Or we can transfer it to a new host.

For anti-spam and anti-virus we use ASSP: http://assp.sourceforge.net/
We run it in a VM running Debian testing. It runs as an SMTP proxy in front of your Scalix. It's great. So easy to setup and configure. We've tried the SpamAssassin/ClamAV path and the MailWasher path. Both worked OK, but are difficult to install correctly as conpared to ASSP which takes maybe 5 mins once you understand how it works.

I used to get a maybe 40 pieces of spam a day. Right after I put it in I get a few every week and I haven't even configured the Bayesian Filter yet.

I'm getting ready to run a test server with Scalix 11 on RHEL on XenSource 3.2 (just released) with the ASSP filter on the same box. We just need to figure out which ports to change where. There is a forum post about it and it looked fairly easy to do.

I'm creating a howto for it soon. I'll post when I'm done.

Cheers,

Michael

[bangsters]

thanks! the ASSP is also installed in a separate server or in the same server as the scalix?

i am configuring a scalix box right now and would try out assp :)

Thanks again for your reply.

[interways2]

We are running scalix on a xen vm with exceptionally good performance. System usage is not measurably higher than running scalix all alone!

Another advantage is: you can simply copy the image file (just one file) and move it to another server or backup storage. It immediately runs on another machine without any changes...

Chris

[bangsters]

i installed ASSP..but everytime i reboot the box the settings are not saved...any ideas....

[a.schild]

We also are testing with XEN and have one productive scalix server in a xen VM.
How much memory do you have assigned to the VM ?

We have started with 384MB, and then 512MB and now 1GB, but the memory load is still sometimes 100%.

[bangsters]

still using vmware at the moment.

got a problem with the setup if anyone can help...

we only have 1 static ip, 1 main server (win2k3) and 2 vmware servers (centos 4.4) inside the main server. the ips are as follows, main server 10.10.10.1, server2 (ASSP spam flter) 10.10.10.3, Scalix Server 10.10.10.2.

Both virtual servers are using bridged connection, and the network, since we only have 1 static IP, is configured with NAT. I had the ISP forward port 80 to 10.10.10.2 so I can use the webmail. port 25 points to 10.10.10.3 to filter spam and port 55555 for webadmin of the spam filter.

With this configuration it should work. From inside the office, I can access all 3 servers from any workstation without any problems. I can send emails out via webmail.

But from outside the network, I cannot get to any ports pointing to the 2 vmware boxes. I can get to the ports pointing to the main server though. I did not enable any firewall whatsoever.

Any ideas where it's getting stuck? we are not receiving any emails since yesterday afternoon when i had the ISP map the smtp port to the new server.

Thanks

[Kris]

We also are testing with XEN and have one productive scalix server in a xen VM.
How much memory do you have assigned to the VM ?

We have started with 384MB, and then 512MB and now 1GB, but the memory load is still sometimes 100%.

Scalix uses a lot of memory, 1 GB is still not very much for a Scalix server I think (depending on how many users ofcourse).
I don't have a virtual Scalix machine, but I have 4 GB in my server (150 Outlook users, 77 IMAP users and some webmail clients) and I still have high memory load

[ssiekmann]

still using vmware at the moment.

got a problem with the setup if anyone can help...

we only have 1 static ip, 1 main server (win2k3) and 2 vmware servers (centos 4.4) inside the main server. the ips are as follows, main server 10.10.10.1, server2 (ASSP spam flter) 10.10.10.3, Scalix Server 10.10.10.2.

Both virtual servers are using bridged connection, and the network, since we only have 1 static IP, is configured with NAT. I had the ISP forward port 80 to 10.10.10.2 so I can use the webmail. port 25 points to 10.10.10.3 to filter spam and port 55555 for webadmin of the spam filter.

With this configuration it should work. From inside the office, I can access all 3 servers from any workstation without any problems. I can send emails out via webmail.

But from outside the network, I cannot get to any ports pointing to the 2 vmware boxes. I can get to the ports pointing to the main server though. I did not enable any firewall whatsoever.

Any ideas where it's getting stuck? we are not receiving any emails since yesterday afternoon when i had the ISP map the smtp port to the new server.

Thanks

If you have set the port forwarding on the public IP to the NATed boxes correctly, it should work fine. Have you also set a default gateway on the two VMs? Can you do a traceroute from those VMs to the Internet?

Cheers,

Sascha.

[bangsters]

got it to work.....looks like ISP did not setup the port forwarding properly....fixed it...only problem now is i can't run vmware toolbox to sync the time lol...it needs a gui and i don't have one installed :(

[racmar]

vmware toolbox can be installed w/o a gui. just click install vmware tools, and the mount the drive. eg.

Code: Select all

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/temp
cd /mnt/temp


look for the rpm to install, easy as pie. I've done this no problem.

Nevermind, I see you are saying you can't RUN vmware-toolbox. How about using ssh to forward your X display? ssh -X ? I should have actually read the post before jumping...

[bangsters]

i actually had no gui, no kde or gnome installed....but i installed kde anyway just so i can run vmware-toolbox :)

thanks though for your reply. :)

got it working