Planning quads, with 1 gig ram and mucho storage
Ipswitch is your best source for the engineering.
From what I've read here, you may be over reacting if the main traffic load is POP3/SMTP, since Imail handles that load very well. If you're going to have heavy Web Messaging with 100's of simultaneous logins, then maybe you're underreacting. vbg
What pitfalls should I look out for? what does anyone suggest in configuration, both hardware and software?
I'd go RAID5 without a 2nd thought for the local-to-Imail disks, 80 Mbyte/sec SCA hot-plug disks, 128 megs RAID controller hardware cache. If you're going to build your own, see the Asus RAID card, www.Asus.com. At least 512 megabytes/RAM.
I'd also run SQL server in its own dedictate backend box, across 100 megabits Ethernet, with the SQL server also running RAID5. 512 megabytes/ram.
Also, look at the Imail peering option. Plus having secondary MX servers both locally and also, preferably, off site.
Running such a big system justifies having other dedicated boxes for virus scanning (trend micro, symantec, McAfee) and anti-spam defenses (www.MailShield.com) if your sales people want to sell those features.
If you're inheriting this user mass from an existing database, then of course you gotta be careful massaging the input file so that it gets into SQL in the format that Imial wants to find it.
Last minute thing, I can't believe the guys up top and in sales are dropping this on me...need info fast
Somebody loves ya, Mr Fish!
Len
