RE: Re[2]: [cobalt-users] Webmail/IMP... - How many users ?

["Rodolfo J. Paiz \(E-mail\)" <rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> RJPEm> Not a good idea. Try to get at least dual-processor 1GHz
> RJPEm> Pentium-III boxes with lots of RAM, say 2GB. Then use
> RJPEm> ...
>
> I have to agree with Rodolfo that a Cobalt would not be a wise choice
> for this application.  However, IMO you might be better off going with
> a load-balanced failover solution with a little less hardware each
> instead of a single power-server.  This might be what Rodolfo was
> implying.

Brian's right, I did get my brain stuck between the big-box and the
bunch-of-little-boxes mentality, thus didn't say something clear.

Option 1: Get one or two super-boxes. Cluster them.

Option 2: Get about five smaller boxes, load-balance them with something
that'll do failover. Better yet, get about 10 of them. Our experience
running servers with our bare hands (by that I mean, learning on the job) is
that about 2,000 mail users on a server is a good comfy space. But you can
go to 4,000 well with the hardware now available.

Note that you can start out with two boxes for Option 2, and add boxes as
you go along.

---

Commentary: I'd go with AMD Athlons, since it makes a perfect webserver
(better than the Intel stuff). For one reference, go search
http://www.anandtech.com for a story they did on the evolution of their
webservers. Note that I see mail traffic as being similar to web traffic;
others may disagree. But if I were doing this, I would get:

2U Rackmount Case with Dual Hot-Swap 300W           $400
Abit KT7-RAID Motherboard with EIDE RAID            $140
AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz                                  $300
512 MB RAM                                          $400
2 x 20GB EIDE Hard Drive (RAID-1)                   $220
Dual Intel Fast Ethernet Server Adapter             $150
Matrox G400 16MB Video                              $ 90
CD-ROM and Floppy                                   $ 80
                                                  =======
                                                  $1,780

Start with two of these, which'll cost you right around $2,000 once you add
in shipping to your door. Add a *serious* RAID-5 disk array on your network
(the local hard drives for each server only hold the system drive and
website info), and store your mail there.

Buy yourself a good failover solution (with failover itself, so you don't
invite any single-point-of-failure), and ensure that you have
triply-redundant links to the Internet via two border routers. Pay for your
domain name until 2009 if you can. Now, add boxes to suit your growth.

This is not a job to be undertaken lightly...

--
Rodolfo J. Paiz
rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>