Gentoo Archives: gentoo-server

From: dennis@××××××××××.com
To: gentoo-server@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-server] Corporate Mail server HARDWARE question
Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2006 19:21:21
Message-Id: 57836.66.7.239.132.1154459829.squirrel@www.themcleods.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-server] Corporate Mail server HARDWARE question by Craig Webster
1 thanks for the reply....
2 comments inline....
3
4
5 > On 1 Aug 2006, at 05:08, Dennis McLeod wrote:
6 >> I'm curious what hardware you build on. Do you buy Dell, HP, build
7 >> your
8 >> own, or do something else?
9 >
10 > I'd go with a Dell SC1425. Get them to put in 2 80Gb SATA drives and
11 > buy an Adaptec RAID card so you can RAID1 them for a bit of data
12 > security. Sure, you could build it cheaper if you really tried, but
13 > is it worth it? They only cost ~£600 for what you'll need.
14 >
15 > Where you'll really save money is by buying RAM from Crucial instead
16 > of Dell. For what Dell charge for an extra 512Mb you can get 2Gb from
17 > Crucial.
18 >
19
20 Great Tip, Thanks. I'll have a look at this cause I have 60 or so Dell
21 workstations with only 256M's on XP.....
22
23 >> What level of hardware would you use for an email only server with
24 >> this
25 >> number of accounts?
26 >
27 > SC1425, 512Mb RAM, 2 RAID1 80Gb SATA drives.
28 >
29 > Actually, I use a Xen VM with 512Mb RAM sitting on top of an SC1425
30 > with 2Gb RAM and 2 RAID1 SATA drives which uses a hub-and-spoke mail
31 > delivery model to push mail to the servers which host the domains,
32 > but the idea is the same :)
33 >
34
35 I've been foillowing XEN, and am very interested in this setup. I am on
36 the Fedora XEN mailing list, and see some interesting questions.
37 Do you use Xen built on Gentoo?
38
39
40 > Xen allows me to have separate SMTP, MX, NS etc servers within one
41 > physical host, each with a dedicated RAM allocation. Virtualisation
42 > is a great word to chuck at management and if you do a little reading
43 > you can get a CPU that'll let you run unmodified Windows VMs on top
44 > of your Xen install which can be handy in a mixed environment.
45 >
46 >> What if you added print and file services?
47 >
48 > Stick in a bit more RAM and a second processor and you'll be fine.
49 > Ideally you want a second server for file services, and printers
50 > which have their own network interface but money might not stretch
51 > that far.
52 >
53 A second server MIGHT be possible in the future....
54
55 >> What do you use for backup?
56 >
57 > A separate server with RAID5 and huge hard drives, only accessible
58 > from a dedicated network -- not the same one that everyone else is
59 > connected to! Because it'll only be accessed when the backups are
60 > happening, these drives are bought for size rather than speed to save
61 > money.
62 >
63 > Use rsnapshot. It's easy to setup and only saves the change deltas so
64 > takes up much less space.
65 >
66 I'll have to start reading
67
68
69 > Have you thought about completely outsourcing your mail system
70 > instead of keeping it with the website provider? It's probably be
71 > cheaper and easier in the long run.
72 >
73 > Cheers,
74 > Craig
75 > --
76 > No long-term contracts, no complicated signup forms, no hidden costs.
77 > Xeriom 2.0: Web hosting made easy. Coming soon! http://xeriom.net/
78 >
79 >
80 >
81 > --
82 > gentoo-server@g.o mailing list
83 >
84 >
85
86
87 --
88 gentoo-server@g.o mailing list

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-server] Corporate Mail server HARDWARE question Craig Webster <craig@××××××.net>