Beanstalkd/Pheanstalk for PHPMailer on Amazon EC2

Question

I would like to implement a queuing mechanism for sending out email via PHPMailer on Amazon EC2. I have set up Beanstalkd correctly on the server and can access it via a console. The mail doesn't seem to go through (trying the various combinations of sample code). In addition do I need to set up a cron job also that would call one of the producer or consumer files?

Does anyone have working code for sending out email via phpmailer/pheanstalk please for Amazon EC2?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Beanstalkd is great, and I use it myself, however, don't use it for this; It's reinventing the wheel in a bad way. Instead, install a local mail server such as postfix and get that to do your queuing for you. This is also much, much simpler, faster, and easier to control. Email servers are built for managing queues, and they are extremely good at it.

Before you do so, get your mail sending script working – there's no point in even attempting to get something more complex working until you've done that. Also be aware that sending email from EC2 is difficult – Amazon wants you to use their SES service rather than sending directly – you may find sending is blocked altogether. Read the PHPMailer troubleshooting guide to see how to diagnose that.