The SPEC OSG Mail Server Subcommittee
is Looking for IMAP Data!
The SPEC OSG Mail Server subcommittee is gathering data for its next
benchmark. The subcommittee is currently working on user profiles for
the IMAP protocol, to be used in the follow-on to the SPECmail2001
benchmark.
What is the subcommittee doing...
The SPEC OSG Mail Server subcommittee is creating user profiles for IMAP
users so the subcommittee can simulate the load on an IMAP mail server
with an accurate workload.
What the subcommittee needs...
What type of data would the subcommittee like to capture?
Software Configuration
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Server software (with version)
-
Client software (with version) if available
Site Policies
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Mailbox size quotas
-
Message size quotas
-
Message expiration policy
SMTP and IMAP4 Server Logs
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All IMAP commands from the client to the server
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User identity (obfuscated) to associate with commands used
-
Timestamp for command with a high resolution timer (to microsecond if
possible)
-
Message size
-
Attachment Size
If possible, saving the data as a single line entry (CSV) would greatly
simplify the analysis.
SMTP Specific Data
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Number of recipients per message
-
Domain information (obfuscated - but consistent if possible)
-
Envelope information (to, from - again obfuscated)
Mailbox information
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Individual mailbox sizes
-
Number of folders per mailbox
-
Number of messages per folder
Worried about privacy issues?
If you have the data, but don't know how to obscure your user's
information, the SPEC OSG Mail Server subcommittee can help. A member of
the subcommittee created scripts to obfuscate previously submitted mail
server logs to protect the privacy of the users. These scripts should be
adaptable to your specific log format, and the subcommittee is willing to
make the scripts available to you so you can obfuscate the data yourself.
If you would like these scripts or have any questions about this, please
contact the SPEC office.
You don't have logging enabled?
You can still help. The SPEC OSG Mail Server
subcommittee can provide you with both a SMTP and IMAP proxy filter that
will capture most of the above data to log files. The filters will
automatically obfuscate the account and login names before writing that
information to the log files. No sensitive information like passwords or
message content would be logged.
Interested?
Send e-mail to the SPEC office at
info@spec.org or call (540) 349-7878.
