RE: [Fed-Talk] Sizing Mini Server for email
RE: [Fed-Talk] Sizing Mini Server for email
- Subject: RE: [Fed-Talk] Sizing Mini Server for email
- From: "Beatty, Daniel D CIV NAVAIR, 474300D" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:08:01 -0800
- Thread-topic: [Fed-Talk] Sizing Mini Server for email
Greetings Jared,
I agree with you that the better redundancy of the Xserv and like hardware with the redundancy features of tank, and hot swappablity out the nose.
Although, there is a beauty on the mini in the fact you can use multiple mini's to server the redundancy issue. One set on of them to back to another via firewire 800. Thus if one breaks, place in its back up and go.
What do you think?
Daniel Beatty
Computer Scientist, Detonation Sciences Branch
Code 474300D
2400 E. Pilot Plant Rd. M/S 1109
China Lake, CA 93555
email@hidden
(760)939-7097
-----Original Message-----
From: fed-talk-bounces+daniel.beatty=email@hidden [mailto:fed-talk-bounces+daniel.beatty=email@hidden] On Behalf Of Nichols, Jared - 1160 - MITLL
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 6:03
To: David Emery; email@hidden
Subject: Re: [Fed-Talk] Sizing Mini Server for email
The thing I'd worry about with the Mini server is not computational load as I'm sure it could handled hundreds of email accounts without much of a problem - the tech specs look like it could handle it (though perhaps I'd like more than 4GB of RAM).
What I'd really worry about is redundancy. There's only 1 NIC, so you can't bond them for interface redundancy and there's only 1 power supply. Also, the drive setup is not ideal for reliability-required situations. Only two drives means that you're doing a RAID 1 if you're looking for redundancy. And, in that case, if one drive fails, you've still got downtime because you need to crack the case open to replace the drive. In that case, I'd worry about computational power - rebuilding the RAID array while trying to keep email service up and speedy may be a bit taxing.
What the real server-class hardware gets you (independent of Mac vs Windows) is hardware redundancy and the ability to hot-swap components. While the price of the Mini is extremely attractive, for something as critical as email in an office where that downtime isn't acceptable (if it is, by all means get one) I wouldn't go for it.
Don't let the price blind you to the serviceability and reliability requirements :)
j
On 12/17/09 6:00 PM, "David Emery" <email@hidden> wrote:
Has anyone seen any numbers/projections/rules-of-thumb for how many
email users a Mac Mini Server whose primary duty is email server (POP,
IMAP, SMPT) will handle? I'm interested in computational load, not disk
space... What motivated this was an exchange with a corporate IT
person. "We're investing in Exchange upgrades." "Yeah, but I bet
you're spending a lot more than the $1k for a Mini Server..." The fair
question is whether a Mini Server would handle the load.
dave
--
David Emery, DSCI, supporting PdM SW Integration, PM NSI
703 298 3473 (office/cell), 703 272 7496 (fax)
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Jared F. Nichols
Desktop Engineer, Infrastructure and Operations Information Services Department MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420
781.981.5436
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