This has happened once in the last two years.

This occurs when the Barracuda filters receive an automatic update that causes a high level of additional processing for each email (the Barracudas are updated very frequently, many times per hour, so that they can keep up with the latest spam and viruses). This additional processing can cause a backlog in the Barracudas’ mail queues. No legitimate email is lost, and the one time this occurred, Barracuda issued an update that fixed the problem within hours. All of the backlogged email was processed using the new, fixed algorithms and the backlog cleared within hours. As the Barracudas quickly processed the backlogged email, the actual mail servers became backed up; however, this to was only for a short time and everything was caught up within about one hour. At that point, there were no more delays in processing mail and everything returned to normal.

If you are concerned about this type of delay reoccuring, you have the option of having your mail processed without the use of Barracuda spam and virus filtering. In making this determination, please consider the fact that this type of problem with Barracuda (with this level of impact) has only occurred once since Barracuda Servers have been implemented at Alentus (~2 years). Also consider that approximately 90% of the email being processed is eliminated by the Barracudas as being spam prior to it reaching the mail servers. This would no longer be the case for your domain. Also consider that, depending on the mail server, it may not be possible to bypass the Barracuda and we may have to move your entire email setup to a server that does allow bypassing. If the latter is the case, it may be possible to add special rules to the Barracuda so that all mail destined for your domain is automatically passed through. Please contact support@alentus.com from more information and options.

Article ID: 87, Created: March 8, 2011 at 2:10 PM, Modified: March 8, 2011 at 5:17 PM

Is it possible for an email “delay” to be caused by a “bad update” to the Barracuda Spam Filters?

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