Large Mail Import

January 2, 2008

Birdhouse is currently importing a very large volume of mail for a new customer. The import process is, unfortunately, consuming a lot of resources and is slowing some services down noticeably. We apologize for the inconvenience; normal system performance should be restored sometime during the day.

Update Jan. 2, 2008: Making progress — we’ve scripted a solution to remove spam and misdirected messages from the queue. The script is running now and making a good dent in the load. Unfortunately, it looks like it will take a while for the script to complete. Mail should start trickling in soon. We’ll keep you updated.

Update Jan. 3, 2008: We’ve found a way to tremendously speed up the queue processing, and are making our way through the backlog very quickly now. We expect all mail to be delivered by the morning of Jan. 3. However, we’ve had to let a fair bit of spam through the filters to make it happen. At this point, we felt it was better to make sure people got their mail even if it included a lot of spam than to delay delivery unnecessarily.

Update #2 - Jan. 3, 2008: We’ve completed the main processing on the queue. However, there are still 50,000 messages in the primary queue, and MailScanner is currently broken. New mail is arriving normally (and so is spam) but the backlogged mail is currently trapped. A consultant is working on this problem with us.

Update Jan. 4, 2008: The backlogged queue has been unfrozen and is now being processed normally. It will take a while for everything to move through the system, but the delivery rate is good. MailScanner has been disabled and cPanel spam controls have changed. We’ll update the FAQs to reflect the changes soon. Note: The backlog will NOT be spam filtered, so users should expect to continue receiving more than normal spam levels until it’s finished. NEW incoming mail is being spam filtered, however.

Update #2, Jan. 4, 2008: Looks like the backlog will be completely processed by sometime late Friday night.

Update #3, Jan. 4, 2008: As of now, we have a single mail  queue, which is currently down to 25,000 messages (it was at 50,000 last night). The queue is not frozen, and users are seeing mail from  the past week trickle slowly into their mailboxes. We expect the queue size to return to normal - and for all outstanding mail to have been delivered - by Saturday morning.

Newly arriving mail is being delivered immediately and is being spam-processed. Older mail already in the queue is trickling out and is not being spam processed.  Once the queue has been emptied, all spam and delivery levels will return to normal.