> > Someone on the linuxmanagers list suggested I post my > > question here, so here goes: > > > > I'm looking for pointers (past experience in particular) > > for sizing a mail > > server for a large-ish mail install based on postfix, cyrus, > > amavisd-new, > > clamav, spamassassin, and web mail (most likely imp) serving around > > 100k > > mailboxes. I estimate I'll need to be able to pass through > > the whole > > chain around 40msgs/sec continuously to be on the safe side. If > > possible, > > I'd like to do this on a single server. Cyrus murder > > probably isn't an > > option, but I think I could swing a separate box to do the content > > filtering. Would, say, a 4-cpu Xeon with ~8GB RAM suffice for the > > MTA/IMAP combination? > > I/O, I/O, I/O -- it's off to work we go!! > > mail systems need primarily disk bandwidth. Get a killer disk > array (fibre-channel or SCSI) and that will keep you happy. > The Xeon is nice, but it's disk bandwidth you *need*. I can > recommend the StorageTek D-series disk systems, but a bit expensive.
That's not fully correct. Yes, it's true that mail systems need primarily disk bandwith. But if you run - as he pointed out he will - spamassassin, amavisd, clamav and so on, you will also need a lot of CPU power and Memory, especially if you have many users who get a lot of mail. My setup for about 1200 users (~ 60000 - 70000 mails/day): * Some IBM machine * 2 GB RAM * Dual-Xeon (2.66 GHz) * 100 GB Harddisk (SCSI 5 with IBM ServeRAID Controller) That setup is OK, but there's allready more memory and larger hardisks on our wishlist. :-) Best, Oliver --- Cyrus Home Page: http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus Cyrus Wiki/FAQ: http://cyruswiki.andrew.cmu.edu List Archives/Info: http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/mailing-list.html
