Hi Len, Are there any better ideas of hardware requirements beyond large and small?
Starting with larger and moving to smaller... what's the range that we're talking about here for 100k-120k users? Assuming inbound, outbound and client SMTP is being handled by a different box(es). Quad PIII 700Ghz / 2GB RAM Dual PIII 1Ghz / 1GB RAM Dual PIII 700Mhz / 1GB RAM PIII 1Ghz / 1GB RAM PII 500 Mhz / 1GB RAM Also, regarding anti-virus for web-mail users... I've been told not to use declude on the same box. Are there any other alternatives that would protect email being shared among users on that same box? How far away is Ipswitch from allowing for a hook or separate layer in the DLLs there somewhere? Thanks again. -ives ----- Original Message ----- From: "Len Conrad" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 5:36 AM Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] 7.1 > > >1) Number of mailboxes: > > > >server 1: 15,000 users > >server 2: 70,000-110,000 users (web-only) > > >2) Many smaller Imail server vs. one larger will result in: > > I'm not recommending many smaller Imail servers , but one big Imail server > plus "helper" machines off-loading as much as possible. ie, asymmetric > multi-processing where processors are dedicated to different tasks, not SMP > where all processors work on the same tasks. > > Whatever you do, don't put your mailbox server directly on Internet as MX > machine. > > >The problem is that there doesn't seem to be a good understanding of what > >type of performance to expect out of Imail. Any performance measures that > >anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. > > 15k and 70K, or 85K, are not small Imail servers, but there are many Imail > servers over 100K, and a few over 200K. > > >3) On SMTP/POP/IMAIL only boxes, anti-virus and SMTP can be offloaded onto > >other SMTP gateways. However, how does one acheive offloading anti-virus > >scanning of email for messages sent from one webmail user to another > >webmail user on the same machine? > > That's a weakness. I think mail between local users can be scanned by > Declude AV (to be confirmed by Scott), but that keeps a large "plumbing" > task on the "user services" box. > > I know one ISP that has taken the approach I'm recommending and has a > dedicated AV box scanning between 100k and 200k msgs/day, and he really > hasn't optimally setup his hardware on that AV box. > > If you look at the MX setup of large ISP's, they achieve large-scale mail > system by running several machines as incoming MX hosts, and separate > machines for sending mail. > > Your DNS support for 85k mail account will also have to be carefully designed. > > Len > > > www.menandmice.com/DNS-training : DNS Training > BIND8NT.MEIway.com : ISC BIND for NT4 & W2K > IMGate.MEIway.com : Build free, hi-perf, anti-abuse mail gateways > > > Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > to be removed from this list. > > An Archive of this list is available at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > > Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked > questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html to be removed from this list. An Archive of this list is available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
