What server for a mail server

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wojciech Puchar [mailto:wojtek at wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl]
> Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 7:38 AM
> To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> Cc: Olivier Nicole; freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: RE: What server for a mail server
>
>
> >>
> >> I have a project where I should set-up a mail server for approximately
> >> 12000 users, 4000 virtual domains, 15000 messages per day, 700 MB
> >> traffic per day.
>
> 200 mails*users/day is safe assumption. maybe 1-2 of them won't be spams
> means about 2.5 million mails a day, assume 5 millions because there are
> hours of low and high load.
>
> i would use jail for a virtual domain and users on those - in this jail,
> use nullfs to share /usr (and save memory),
> sendmail+procmail+spamassassin
> works fine.
>
> it WILL survive this on average modern machine (but with 4 or more disks)
> without problems, unless spamassassin turned off.
>
> if not - it will need possible a few machines. POSSIBLY on one, with 2-4
> cores and lots of RAM, and properly configured spamassassin.
>

The problem with doing it this way is the all-eggs-in-one-basket issue.

When you spread out the load among multiple machines, it is a lot cheaper
to purchase machines, at least in the US.  And if there is a problem with
one of the processes it's usually easier to troubleshoot.

The rest of the advice is good - and of course, we could spend days on
a hardware discussion.

Ted