Some performance questions
Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 8:25 am
We are considering to switch to Scalix. I've created a test environment and am very impressed by the product. This week I'll transfer a few more people to the test environment, to see how the system handles it and how the people like it ;)
First some information about our current e-mail system:
Postfix mailserver who delivers to a users mailbox. Clients are Outlook 2000, Outlook 2003 (both pop3) and Mozilla Thunderbird (IMAP). All Mailfiles (around 75GB of .pst files including archives) are stored on a Netware server. At the moment we have around 200 users. Around 30 Thunderbird users, the rest Outlook users. The current performance for the Outlook users is very bad because of the large .pst files stored on the network. When we switch to Scalix, all Outlook users should be premium users with the mail stored on the server.
I have a few questions regarding the performance when using Scalix.
- The test environment is a Fedora Core 4 install, as guest OS on a Xen Virtual server. This isn't the fastest machine, and upgrading is not really an option (only space for two harddisks). So for the production environment I need some other system. I've two other machines that might be used for the server:
1) dual Xeon 2.0 Ghz, 4GB ram.
2) dual Xeon 3.0 Ghz, 4GB ram.
Machine 1 is currently not in use.
Machine 2 is currently in use, but the applications running can be transferred to a virtual machine on one of the Xen servers because they do almost nothing ;)
Both machines need new hardware for storage, the hardware the machines now have is insufficient. I'd like to use machine 1, but Will the difference between the two servers (slower processor) have great impact on the performance? Or maybe both machines are not capable of running scalix at a good speed?
- Currently, there's all together about 75 GB of e-mail in the .pst files of the users. Many users have large mailfiles, and a lot of archives. Many users have to search for mail in their archive very often, and it would be handy if they could just have all their e-mail available (also from other locations using webmail!), without the need of archive files. Is it very bad for performance to import all the e-mail into the user's mailstore when running scalix? Perhaps other options for archiving e-mail? We don't like the Outlook's .pst files with its stupid 2GB limit.
- Storage: any experience with SATA raid controllers? We have one in the 3Ghz system mentioned above, but performance is very, very bad. Are there any good controllers out there, or should I pay much more and go for SCSI (I hope not..). And what would be a good raid setup? Raid 1? 1+0? or 5?
Thank you very much for your help 8)
First some information about our current e-mail system:
Postfix mailserver who delivers to a users mailbox. Clients are Outlook 2000, Outlook 2003 (both pop3) and Mozilla Thunderbird (IMAP). All Mailfiles (around 75GB of .pst files including archives) are stored on a Netware server. At the moment we have around 200 users. Around 30 Thunderbird users, the rest Outlook users. The current performance for the Outlook users is very bad because of the large .pst files stored on the network. When we switch to Scalix, all Outlook users should be premium users with the mail stored on the server.
I have a few questions regarding the performance when using Scalix.
- The test environment is a Fedora Core 4 install, as guest OS on a Xen Virtual server. This isn't the fastest machine, and upgrading is not really an option (only space for two harddisks). So for the production environment I need some other system. I've two other machines that might be used for the server:
1) dual Xeon 2.0 Ghz, 4GB ram.
2) dual Xeon 3.0 Ghz, 4GB ram.
Machine 1 is currently not in use.
Machine 2 is currently in use, but the applications running can be transferred to a virtual machine on one of the Xen servers because they do almost nothing ;)
Both machines need new hardware for storage, the hardware the machines now have is insufficient. I'd like to use machine 1, but Will the difference between the two servers (slower processor) have great impact on the performance? Or maybe both machines are not capable of running scalix at a good speed?
- Currently, there's all together about 75 GB of e-mail in the .pst files of the users. Many users have large mailfiles, and a lot of archives. Many users have to search for mail in their archive very often, and it would be handy if they could just have all their e-mail available (also from other locations using webmail!), without the need of archive files. Is it very bad for performance to import all the e-mail into the user's mailstore when running scalix? Perhaps other options for archiving e-mail? We don't like the Outlook's .pst files with its stupid 2GB limit.
- Storage: any experience with SATA raid controllers? We have one in the 3Ghz system mentioned above, but performance is very, very bad. Are there any good controllers out there, or should I pay much more and go for SCSI (I hope not..). And what would be a good raid setup? Raid 1? 1+0? or 5?
Thank you very much for your help 8)