• Published on | Jan 13, 2006 | by FozzTexx

Spam filtering - cluster style

Spam load again got to be too much for the computer I had dedicated to the task. Decided I really needed to give the clustering thing another try.

I decided the easiest thing to do would be to build yet another dedicated computer to handle just the spam filtering. Since I would be starting from scratch on an install, I had the ClusterKnoppix CD install itself to the HD. I then burned another CD and setup 2 more computers on my cart and booted them from the CD.

All 3 computers joined together and so I tried building a Linux kernel to see if any would panic. Nope, they all stayed running and have been running overnight. Seems good so I started installing the spam filtering software.

They are now running the spam filtering, but the load distribution isn't working so good. This could be because I'm now out of 100baseT hubs and had to use a junk 10baseT hub. Could also be that the computers themselves aren't terribly fast.

The load is still too much for this setup. I think I need to get a 100baseT switch and add a couple more computers. I also should setup a web page that will let people view the spam log as it comes in. It's unreal. 20-30 dictionary attack spams every minute.

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