Recommended mass mailer
20 Replies
MailChimp
Well I just installed Dadamail, and when you try to upload more than about 1000 emails it times out. Can Mailchimp upload larger amounts?
We've used MailChimp for years. Each of our clients has a separate account. Most of them have small mailing lists and send once a month or less so the free account is a perfect fit for them.
MailChimp also lets you have sub-lists which is great for group specific announcements without having to maintain completely separate lists.
DadaMail was working great until the cgi-bin folder mysteriously disappeared. Now it has to be rebuilt.
@LINuser:
DadaMail was working great until the cgi-bin folder mysteriously disappeared. Now it has to be rebuilt.
Why did that happen? That is a huge red flag that you need to look into.
Do you use backups?
Do you monitor your server to make sure it is secure? Have a firewall setup? Check your logs?
Was going to do a security check right after that, but now no need unless the mass mailer works (may have to re-image).
Had not used backup (extra charge, right?) because I did not even know if the server would work. I'll do a backup after it gets running again. And then a security check.
If you don't want to use Linode's backup service you can split up your disc space allotment and create a 'clone' of your production disc. This will give you a backup of the full installation & configuration. You'd still need to backup your mailing lists, databases, etc, but you'd have a fully working installation to spin up or clone.
We do this on test Linodes. I'll use 1/4 of the disc allotment and create a base install of what we want to test. Then I clone it. Once I have a clone I install whatever I wanted to test and just bang away at it. If I get it where I want it I clone that disc (leaving me with 3 disc images and enough space for a fourth just in case I want to try something else). Every time I hit a milestone I delete #3 and clone #2 again.
Sometimes I want to try different products (such as free control panels). I create #1 and clone it a few times. Then I boot #2 and install. Boot #3 and install. Then #4. It's a great way to create a backup - or try things out - without having set up multiple Linodes.
You can check your disk space usage with this command:
df -h
You can always ask support about any potential problems when reducing the size of a disk image.
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs 48G 1.1G 44G 3% /
/dev/root 48G 1.1G 44G 3% /
devtmpfs 493M 0 493M 0% /dev
tmpfs 99M 184K 99M 1% /run
tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 249M 0 249M 0% /run/shm
Would you say it's safe to resize smaller?
@LINuser:
Would you say it's safe to resize smaller?
Should be fine - you're only using about 1.1G of your total space so you've got plenty of room to work with. And resizing down is safe - the Linode Manager adjusts your filesystem before (shrinking) or after (enlarging) adjusting the raw disk image. If the filesystem adjustment fails (it uses resize2fs beneath the covers) the entire process will abort and you'll be back where you started.
Your Linode will need to be shut down during the resize operation.
This assumes your images are the standard ext3 filesystem the manager creates if you don't do anything special, which is most likely. If you're using another filesystem type, you're responsible for managing the filesystem resize and the manager only handles the raw disk, and in that case you do have to be more careful.
– David
I made a duplicate of the original "Debian 7 Disk Image", and I presume that the Linode always knows which image to boot to – maybe the first one in the list of images? They are currently listed as:
Debian 7 Disk Image (10000 MB, ext3)
256MB Swap Image (256 MB, swap)
Copy 1 - after fixing dada install (10000 MB, ext3)
– David
@LINuser:
Not sure how it happened. Dada was just installed for a few weeks and being tested. I had gone in to give it new passwords, then I restarted sendmail, and restarted the Linode, and then the cgi-bin was gone.
Was going to do a security check right after that, but now no need unless the mass mailer works (may have to re-image).
Had not used backup (extra charge, right?) because I did not even know if the server would work. I'll do a backup after it gets running again. And then a security check.
As others have mentioned you don't need to use the paid backups, but not having any backups means you have lots of free time on your hands.
I use a combination of many backup solutions to provide recovery.
Linode Backup - good for full site restore, not good for individual files
TarBall Backups - run daily of key info and stored on the server for quick access.
Duplicity Backups - rsync like encrypted backups to another server that does full and incremental backups with retention going back a year.
As for:
@LINuser:
Not sure how it happened. Dada was just installed for a few weeks and being tested. I had gone in to give it new passwords, then I restarted sendmail, and restarted the Linode, and then the cgi-bin was gone.
Was going to do a security check right after that, but now no need unless the mass mailer works (may have to re-image).
So your existing setup could have a vulnerability but you didn't check because it all seems fine. Living in the fast lane…
I'm glad things are working and are an improvement (both performance and cost). Just keep in mind that your time has value as well, so be sure to "insure" your time investment by keeping good backups.