View source for Scalable Anti-Spam Using Spamassassin and MySQL

{{BC|Certified}}
__FORCETOC__
<div class="col-md-12 ibox-content">
=Spamassassin Bayes Database Options=
{{KB|{{ZC}}|{{ZCS 7.0}}||}}

By default, SpamAssassin in Zimbra ZCS utilizes a Berkeley DB format database for it's Bayes filtering data.  The Berkeley DB format database implementation in SpamAssassin uses a sequential locking mechanism which can impede message processing for larger ZCS installations.  Thus the default for SpamAssassin to use the Berkeley DB format database may not be ideal.

Alternatively, SpamAssassin can be configured to use a dedicated MySQL back-end
database on an MTA node to store its Bayes filtering data.  A MySQL database affords increased performance to SpamAssassin and message processing as it allows for concurrent access to the indexed database.

Although there is some overhead in running and maintaining an extra MySQL
database instance, the performance gains may warrant this extra overhead.

=Enabling MySQL Database=
As the zimbra user, run the following commands:
 zmlocalconfig -e antispam_mysql_enabled=TRUE
 zmantispamctl restart

=Reverting to (Default) Berkeley DB Format Database=
As the zimbra user, run the following commands:
 zmlocalconfig -e antispam_mysql_enabled=FALSE
 zmantispamctl restart

=Migrating to (Default) Berkeley DB Format Database=
Migrating existing Bayes data (from Berkeley DB to MySQL DB) is currently not supported. 

=Accessing a Remote Spamassassin MySQL Database=
Optionally in a multi-node environment, if a Spamassassin MySQL Database server is already running on another MTA node, Spamassassin can be configured to utilize that remote Spamassassin MySQL Database (instead of running an additional MySQL database instance).

To configure Spamassassin to utilize a remote Spamassassin MySQL Database server, the user name and password of the remote Spamassassin MySQL Database is required.  This can be obtained by running the following commands as the zimbra user:

===On remote server===
 zmlocalconfig -s antispam_mysql_user
 zmlocalconfig -s antispam_mysql_password

To enable the local MTA server to access the remote Spamassassin MySQL Database, as the zimbra user, run the following commands on the local server:

===On local server===
 zmlocalconfig -e antispam_mysql_user=<username>
 zmlocalconfig -e antispam_mysql_password=<password>
 zmlocalconfig -e antispam_mysql_host=<remote_host>
 zmlocalconfig -e antispam_mysql_enabled=TRUE
 zmantispamctl restart

where <username> is the name of the MySQL user and <password> is the password for the MySQL user account on the remote server; and where <remote_host> is the FQDN of the remote host already running the Spamassassin MySQL Database engine.


{{Article Footer|ZCS 7.0|5/5/2011}}

[[Category:ZCS 7.0]]
[[Category:Anti-spam]]
[[Category:MTA]]