--- title: Protect Your Shared Infrastructure With Tenant Throttles description: KumoMTA can prevent abuse by newly signed up customers at self-serve ESPs by limiting their ability to send high volumes after signup. image: https://kumomta.com/hubfs/AI-Generated%20Media/Images/An%20image%20of%20KumoMTAs%20Traffic%20Shaping%20Automation%20system%20with%20Tenant%20Throttles%20in%20action%2c%20protecting%20shared%20infrastructure%20from%20abusive%20messages%20and%20sp.jpeg --- [Skip to content](https://kumomta.com/blog/protect-your-shared-infrastructure-with-tenant-throttles#main-content) [![KUMO\_Logo\_NEW\_Color](https://kumomta.com/hs-fs/hubfs/KUMO_Logo_NEW_Color.png?width=118&height=32&name=KUMO_Logo_NEW_Color.png "KUMO_Logo_NEW_Color")](https://kumomta.com) - Technology - [Architecture](https://kumomta.com/technology/architecture) - [Features](https://kumomta.com/technology) - [Open Source](https://kumomta.com/technology/open-source) - [Support & Pricing](https://kumomta.com/pricing) - About Kumo - [About Us](https://kumomta.com/about) - [Events](https://kumomta.com/events) - [Customers](https://kumomta.com/customers) - [Contact Us](https://kumomta.com/contact) - Resources - [Documentation](https://docs.kumomta.com/) - [Migration Center](https://kumomta.com/migration-center) - [Migration Center Hub](https://kumomta.com/migration-center) - [Momentum](https://kumomta.com/momentum-migration-guide) - [PowerMTA](https://kumomta.com/replace-powermta-with-kumomtas-infrastructure-built-for-mailops) - [Halon](https://kumomta.com/halon-migration-guide) - [SendGrid](https://kumomta.com/sendgrid-alternative-migration) - [Hurricane MTA](https://kumomta.com/hurricanemta-alternative-socketlabs-migration) - [Blog](https://kumomta.com/blog) - [Community Forum](https://community.kumomta.com/) - Guides & Reports - [2026 MTA Buyers Guide](https://kumomta.com/buyers-guide-2026-download) - [2026 State of MailOps](https://kumomta.com/2026-state-of-mailops-report-download-page) - [YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC348UpfbnPgpKPAXIBW_JNQ) - [Github Repository](https://github.com/KumoCorp/kumomta) - [Contact](https://kumomta.com/contact) - [KumoMTA](https://kumomta.com/blog/tag/kumomta), - [Multi-Tenant](https://kumomta.com/blog/tag/multi-tenant), - [Traffic Shaping Automation](https://kumomta.com/blog/tag/traffic-shaping-automation), - [Deliverability](https://kumomta.com/blog/tag/deliverability) # Protect Your Shared Infrastructure With Tenant Throttles ![](https://kumomta.com/hubfs/AI-Generated%20Media/Images/An%20image%20of%20KumoMTAs%20Traffic%20Shaping%20Automation%20system%20with%20Tenant%20Throttles%20in%20action%2c%20protecting%20shared%20infrastructure%20from%20abusive%20messages%20and%20sp.jpeg) - October 15, 2024 ![Mike Hillyer](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/ef4bdb34f7a0a0173ce043e53c805f2e) [Mike Hillyer](https://kumomta.com/blog/author/mike-hillyer) One thing many ESPs have in common is the risk created by self-serve signups: a new user signs up for a free or even paid account and almost immediately bursts out their monthly allocation in spam or other abusive messages. While this can be mitigated using middleware, it helps if the MTA can protect the ESP against these types of abuse, especially for those that allow direct relay access. Fortunately, KumoMTA can be used to protect against this kind of abuse thanks to its unique queue architecture that includes Campaign and Tenant as discrete queue identifiers instead of just being attached as metadata. Because each tenant is distinct within the KumoMTA queue architecture, we can apply throttles at the tenant level that can slow the flow of traffic by a new tenant. For example, we can create an entry in the config for the [queues helper](https://docs.kumomta.com/userguide/configuration/queuemanagement/) like this: ``` [tenant.'mytenant'] # Which pool should be used for this tenant egress_pool = 'shared-pool-new' # Override maximum message age based on tenant; this overrides settings at the domain level max_message_rate = '5/minute' ``` ``` ``` By setting the [max\_message\_rate](https://docs.kumomta.com/reference/kumo/make_queue_config/max_message_rate/) to five messages per minute, this tenant cannot burst through too much traffic during their initial time with the ESP, even though they use a shared IP pool. The pool itself is not rate-limited for other tenants, this throttle only affects the speed at which the tenant's messages can move from the scheduled queue to the shared pool's ready queue. This approach is especially powerful when combined with the SuspendTenant action of KumoMTA's [Traffic Shaping Automation](https://docs.kumomta.com/userguide/configuration/trafficshaping/#traffic-shaping-automation) as it allows you to automatically suspend sending by individual tenants when certain feedback is received. For example, this rule will work with Google's new domain-specific feedback: ``` [["gmail.com".automation]]regex = "unusual rate of mail originating from your DKIM domain"action = "SuspendTenant"duration = "3 hours" ``` When KumoMTA encounters the response in the example, rather than throttling or suspending the shared IP, it will instead suspend the tenant so that their sending patterns can be analyzed to determine whether to restore sending or address the tenant directly. Combined with a throttle on the tenant this means that a new malicious signup will be unable to send a material amount of traffic before being detected and suspended, preventing reputation harm that might otherwise occur.   STAY IN TOUCH ## Get periodic updates about the latest releases, features, and news around KumoMTA. 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