Hello, Serge. I'm happy to chime in here, but let me start off with saying that you will get divergent opinions here, and that nobody will be absolutely right, as our answers are coloured by own experiences, and each implementation is unique.
I'll also start off with asking you for your current and your intended message volumes, general architecture and software mix. Answering these details will help you keep the arguments comparing apples to apples because what is true for one respondent with low volume will not be true for another respondent with crushingly high volumes! My answers: 1- Memory I used to agonize over the making the exact right decision regarding slots, interleaving and multipliers; my truth *now* is that these are tweaks that make 2% to 6% of the raw memory speed in benchmarks and that it makes precious little difference in the real world for, say, an email server. Memory is relatively cheap; buy as much as you want as long it's from a name brand like Kingston, avoiding for example buying it from HP (the days are long gone where Compaq would tell you to remove 3rd party RAM to get support from them). 2- Disk technology Yes, my truth is that your fast servers need SCSI, SAS or a SAN based on those technologies. For bulk storage, choose SATA to save you a lot of money on back-end servers. In addition, buy a battery backed RAM cache controller for your RAID controller; this will enable write-cacheing on the RAID controller. An HP RAID controller will not assume that you have a battery backed UPS, and will not cache writes without this add-on. The throughput of your write operations are critical for a busy email server. If you buy an HP Proliant server based on SAS with 6 internal drives you will also need a second controller cable. 3- Disk layout Don't go cheap and use a single unprotected drive for any purpose. I used to like that format too, but my uptime and remediation time is more important than the cost of the drive technology. The layout you've described, it's good. Put the swap file on the System drive. Other commentary: If you use HP, you really really really should use their Firmware Update and SmartStart install CDs. Download the current version rather than using the one that comes in the box. Also update your HP Insight Manager once the OS is installed, and set up your HP Insight Manager to send email alerts to a generic helpdesk account within your tech support team and *never* to just one staff member. The cefib.com domain is an ISP; I'd actually recommend TWO servers that are less expensive instead of one large one for your environment. The first server: As an antispam gateway for your inbound mail. The second server: As your mailbox store and for your outbound mail. Put monitoring software on each, watching the other server and your other connectivity as required. Andrew. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Serge > Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 1:41 PM > To: declude.junkmail@declude.com > Subject: [Declude.JunkMail] Hardware Upgrade > > Hi > > We are planning a hardware upgrade for february, after 5 > years on the previous ML370G2 > > We will buy a 2slot QuadXeon Motherboard, 1.333FSB, and > 2x2.33GHz QuadXeon, 2GB DDR2 and have some technichal > questions for the resident techies > > 1- Should we get the fastest memory available, or should the > memory speed be a divider of 1333 or 2.33 ? > > 2- Does a mail server really need SCSI or SAS @15K/Minute ? > or regular SATA @ 7K or 10K enough ? > > 3- We are planning on using : > > 2 HD in Raid1 for System > 2 HD in Raid1 for Mailboxes > 2 HD in Raid1 for Spool > > Where should we put the virtual Memory ? > > Or, is it better to have > > 2 HD in Raid1 for System > 2 HD in Raid1 for Mailboxes > 1 HD Spool > 1 HD for VM > > You all have a good weekend and a merry christmas next week > > Serge Dergham > > > > > --- > This E-mail came from the Declude.JunkMail mailing list. To > unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and > type "unsubscribe Declude.JunkMail". The archives can be found > at http://www.mail-archive.com. > > --- This E-mail came from the Declude.JunkMail mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and type "unsubscribe Declude.JunkMail". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com.
