[Techtalk] postfix reload (Was: filtering spam with spamassassin)

[Carla Schroder]

On Sunday 14 September 2003 7:51 pm, showercurtain wrote:
> On Friday, September 12, 2003, 12:09:28 PM, Carla Schroder wrote:
> > On Thursday 11 September 2003 9:03 pm, showercurtain wrote:
> >> Another problem is configuring postfix to use an rbl database.
>
> Will
>
> >> this cause any disruptions with sending and receiving mail?
> >
> > No, because it works at the DNS level it is very fast. The blocked
>
> messages never hit your server at all.
>
> What I'm worried about is that doing "postfix reload" will cause the
> mail server to restart. According to some documentation on this
> command, "postfix reload" causes postfix configuration files to be
> re-read and running processes will terminate at the earliest
> convenience.  Does anyone know if this will affect email services for
> users?  There are 900 of them (not 100 like I previously thought) and
> I don't want to cause a problem I don't know how to fix :L
>

Using "postfix reload" on a busy server could cause some problems. There 
should be minimal disruption, but since you are making changes to main.cf, 
additional problems could crop up if there are any mistakes. What you might 
want to do is set up a test system first, practicing new things on a 
production system isn't always a best practice.  :) Especially when you're 
implementing something as potentially drastic as DNSRBLs, you'll want to 
monitor the logs for awhile and make sure things work right. Especially the 
reject messages, which tell blocked senders what to do.

You're going to get whining sooner or later anyway, from senders who are not 
spammers, but whose mail is blocked because they are using a service provider 
who is on blocklists. Some large providers, such as Verio, UUNet, EV1, 
Rackshack, Bellsouth, Roadrunner, etc etc, have lots of IP blocks on 
blocklists.

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Carla Schroder
www.tuxcomputing.com
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