* Jay Kline (list at slushpupie.com) wrote: > Does anyone have any suggestions for a complete setup for this? We would > like to keep the number of servers to a minimum, and the servers would be > dedicated to SMTP relay, not really running anything else. We are not > opposed to running comercial software, right now we use PTMA (from Port25), > but liceneing for it is $9000 per box, and wouldlike something a bit cheaper. > Also, the other obvious problem is bandwith. Right now I belive we have 2 > T1's set up for this, and I know we will need more down the road. If I were building myself a high volume smtp relay that could fit your needs in the future, start with the basics.. you want fast storage, fast retrieval and reliability and maybe even a failover mechanism to start. 2 Boxen, go with 2 PIII 800's, each with 512M ram and a 10 gig ide drive. Remember, the machines don't need to be powerful, the speed comes from the IO backend and the network capabilities. Research raid arrays, smaller arrays, ie 60-120 Gig are not as expensive as you may think, otherwise you may just want an external JBOD full of big disks. You'll want scsi cards in your two machines so you can connect each to the array/JBOD at the same time. Use a stable variety of linux for your servers, I'd say debian stable due to it's reliable nature and ease of upgradeability. Make your array/JBOD into an LVM logical volume, that way you'll be able to expand it's size on-the-fly when you choose to add more storage resulting in less downtime. Use GFS (www.sistina.com <-- plug plug) as your file-system as this is what it was designed for, reliability and redundancy. Without getting to nitty-gritty, you should be able to setup a secure redundant mini-cluster able to fit the needs of a high-volume smtp relay with the ability to easily expand it's capabilities in the future. Outside of the linux world, go with any of the BSD's and use VINUM to create raid volumes, using soft-updates to increase data-reliability, the BSD's have wonderful load-balancing capabilites as well, and you can't beat BSD's rock solid stability.. Hell, if it's good enough for M$ and hotmail, I'd say it's hold it's own for your situation. Good luck! -- Tom Hudak Unix specialist TCOS Inc. 612-318-1967 thudak at autonomous.tv -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 232 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://shadowknight.real-time.com/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20020110/b2ffd778/attachment.pgp