++ Overview

What is it?
A small stand-alone tool to put load onto a running James Server and record its performance.

What's the name?
Postage. (Well, maybe we can fix that soon.)

How is the load generated?
By sending mails from/to a number of internal/external accounts.

How is the load measured?
By matching sent and delivered test mails, and recording timestamps when sending and retrieving mails.
Recording James' JVM memory data is a planned feature.
 
How does the tool evaluate the recorded data? Does it paint nice diagrams?
It doesn't. But you should be able to import the Comma Separated Data it generates into a spreadsheet of your choice.

I want to simulate a large user base, how can I do that?
Postage creates any number of users you want. See Postage configuration.

How does Postage send mail?
a. By sending mail in using James' SMTP service
b. By sending mail out ('relaying') through James' SMTP service
 
How does Postage know if delivery was successful?
a. By polling internal accounts through James' POP3 service                                                             
b. By acting as a mail gateway for James' outbound mail coming through SMTP

++ James configuration

+ incoming SMTP must be enabled for the machine running postage (TODO: add config part here) 
+ POP3 must be enabled with "simple" authentication
+ James must handle mail for internal user domain (TODO: add config part here)
+

++ start Postage 

org.apache.james.postage.Main <path/to/config_file.xml> <scenario1> [<scenario2> ... ]
 
++ needed libraries

the following libraries are expected on the classpath:

for reading xml configuration file:                               
commons-collections-3.1.jar
commons-configuration-1.5.jar
commons-lang-2.3.jar

for logging:
commons-logging-1.1.jar

for telnet, SMTP & POP3  client:
commons-net-1.4.1.jar

for unit testing:
junit-3.8.1.jar

for embedded SMTP server from James:
mail-1.4.1.jar
activation-1.1.1.jar
cornerstone-sockets-api-2.2.2.jar
cornerstone-sockets-impl-2.2.2.jar
cornerstone-threads-api-2.2.2.jar
cornerstone-connection-impl-2.2.2.jar
avalon-framework-api-4.3.1.jar
avalon-framework-impl-4.3.1.jar
excalibur-thread-api-2.2.1.jar
excalibur-thread-impl-2.2.1.jar
excalibur-pool-api-2.2.1.jar
james-server-core-library-3.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
james-server-smtpserver-function-3.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
mailet-2.4-SNAPSHOT.jar
james-server-domain-api-3.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
concurrent-1.3.4.jar
excalibur-pool-impl-2.2.1.jar
apache-james-mailet-base-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
cornerstone-connection-api-2.2.2.jar
dnsjava-2.0.6.jar

++ How does it work?

+ Prepare James

+ Prepare the Postage configuration

+ Start Postage

 Postage selects the Scenario you want to run
 Postage checks if all services can be reached
 Postage starts to do its job
 Postage writes all recorded data