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Load Testing and Analysis of Email Services

Brandon Rogers, Joseph J. Ekstrom, Charles Higby

Brigham Young University

Abstract

In modern business, electronic mail has become a requirement for efficient and profitable communication with clients, providers, and colleagues. Due to this dependency on electronic communication, mail servers used to send, relay, and receive messages are critical to a company’s daily operations. It is imperative that the mail server is highly resistant to attacks to provide a company with the most cost effective and reliable service possible.

This paper describes the method and results of performance testing on several current email service implementations. Mail server software is configured on identical hardware where possible and tested for reactions to various simulated load conditions. For each configuration, throughput characteristics are measured and presented so that objective comparisons can be made.

Introduction

In 2003, Brigham Young University’s School of Technology began building a laboratory for hardware and software testing and performance analysis. The lab contains 20 workstation computers, a few high-speed machines and switches, and one Itanium 64-bit computer. The purpose of this lab is to provide students and faculty with a means to perform research that can be used to characterize the performance of a system. This experimental environment is ideal for creating and performing benchmarking tests to scientifically describe the performance of these systems. This is one of two studies completed and used to christen this new lab.

Email Servers

Billions of email messages are sent daily to aide in business, education, and general communication1. Email increases efficiency, enhances communication, and is one of the Internet’s driving forces. With such demand for email, server performance and evaluations are also essential. Quantifying server performance can help in the decision of an appropriate email server for any given situation.

Two types of email servers help run the email system: mail / message transport agents (MTAs) and mail delivery agents (MDAs)2. MTAs are burdened with the task of sending and forwarding email. MTAs are the programs responsible for delivering e-mail messages. Upon receiving a message the MTA stores it temporarily locally and analyses the recipients and either delivers it

Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education

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Higby, C., & Rogers, B., & Ekstrom, J. (2004, June), Load Testing And Analysis Of Email Services Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--14106