On Fri, 15 May 1998, Peter Chen wrote:
> Exchange Server 5.5. But I manage to persuade the management to use Red Hat
> Linux 5.5 instead.
>
> - Now am I too ambitious?
You bet you are. 5.5 isn't even out yet. :)
> - Can a Red Hat Linux box handle the load of a heavy mail server serving
> 4000+ clients?
Yes, assuming that the hardware is up to the job. NT certainly won't do
it. (Well, it might, but I wouldn't bet my job on it)
> - Can a stock Red Hat 5.0 sendmail 8.8.7 handle so many users, for
> example, more than 2000 concurrent SMTP connections? Or should I recompile
> the sendmail?
There's no fundamental limits that I'm aware of in the Red Hat sendmail;
it's the same sendmail that the rest of the world uses. However, qmail is
faster than sendmail, so you might want to look into that.
Are you really going to have 2000 concurrent SMTP connections? Unless
your users do nothing but send mail, your 4000 users should never generate
2000 SMTP connections. I'm assuming your incoming mail behaves in a
reasonable fashion as well (i.e. doesn't come in enormous bursts).
How are your users getting their mail? Are they getting it from POP/IMAP
from this same server, or is this server just a big hub and delivering
their mail via SMTP directly to their personal machines? My guess is the
former. In that case, handling the POP requests will probably be more
trouble than the SMTP requests.
> - Should I patch kernel 2.0.33 with file-descriptor patch and recompile a
> new kernel?
Wouldn't hurt. You should get the 2.0.34 kernel in any case.
> - Can a Pentium II 233Mhz, Intel 440LX chipset, 256MB RAM, Asustek SC875
> UW SCSI controller, two IBM Ultrastar 9GB UW SCSI hard disks do the job?
I'm not familiar with that SCSI controller. Be sure you set RAID
(striping) on the drives, and you will have to add some RAM if you're
really going to have 2,000 concurrent connections. How much is in the
Solaris system that your ISP is using? If you have only 4,000 users, you
should probably not count on more than a hundred or so simultaneous
connections at the very most and 256M should be enough. What you need to
serve the POP/IMAP is another concern. Do all your users come in in the
morning and all check their mail at once? In which case you might have
perhaps not 2,000 but likely a couple hundred outstanding POP clients,
perhaps; you might want to go to 512M of RAM. If on the other hand they
don't all do this but check their email at a more leisurely pace, then
your system as it stands should be fine.
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