[OT] Filter Server Specs
Currently, we are looking to install a server that will be doing content filtering for our main e-mail server. I thought I would toss this out to everyone to get some feedback on if the server would be adequate. The server is a Dell PowerEdge 6850 with the following: - Four 2.6 GHz/800Mhz/4mb Cache Dual-Core Intel Zeon 7110M processors - Eight GB DDR2 400Mhz ram - Four 300GB, 3Gbps, SAS, 10K RPM Hard Drives running Raid-5 on a PERC5/i controller Our main e-mail server services over 500 domains with an account total of around 40,000. The current filter server we have can not do any content filtering outside of itself (i.e. the MTA) because of CPU load (i.e. SpamAssassin). Any message scanning where the message size is over 1.5K will kill the CPU. The current filter server we have in place is rejecting an average 2.4 million per day with just the common blacklisting and some other things that are set in place. The other thing I would like to know is what kind of an operating system would one install on this new server? Again, I appreciate any feedback that can be said.
Re: [OT] Filter Server Specs
On Fri, Oct 27, 2006 at 02:42:49PM +, Duane Hill wrote: > Currently, we are looking to install a server that will be doing content > filtering for our main e-mail server. I thought I would toss this out to > everyone to get some feedback on if the server would be adequate. > > The server is a Dell PowerEdge 6850 with the following: > > - Four 2.6 GHz/800Mhz/4mb Cache Dual-Core Intel Zeon 7110M processors > - Eight GB DDR2 400Mhz ram > - Four 300GB, 3Gbps, SAS, 10K RPM Hard Drives running Raid-5 on a > PERC5/i controller > > Our main e-mail server services over 500 domains with an account total > of around 40,000. > > The current filter server we have can not do any content filtering > outside of itself (i.e. the MTA) because of CPU load (i.e. > SpamAssassin). Any message scanning where the message size is over 1.5K > will kill the CPU. The current filter server we have in place is > rejecting an average 2.4 million per day with just the common > blacklisting and some other things that are set in place. I *think* this should handle your load. Personally from my years of ISP experience, I'd strongly favor going the road of multiple identical servers in parallel rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. E.g. use two 4 CPU servers rather than one 8 CPU (4x dualcore) server. The difference is that if it comes up just short, or if load jumps up again, it's easier to add a 3rd server and cut it into the mail path than to upgrade a server which is handling all your filtering. You also don't need fast hard drives on a filtering server; it's almost all gonna be pushing the CPU and RAM. > The other thing I would like to know is what kind of an operating system > would one install on this new server? This'll get you into a religious war for sure... I would favor FreeBSD latest (6.x), but any version of Linux with a good package system and a recent 2.6 kernel is a good choice - maybe better than FreeBSD at using 8 CPUs. Reasonable possibilities include CentOS, Gentoo, Debian. I'm not a big Linux head, others may have stronger opinions on that front. -- Clifton -- Clifton Royston -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] President - I and I Computing * http://www.iandicomputing.com/ Custom programming, network design, systems and network consulting services
Re: [OT] Filter Server Specs
Clifton Royston wrote: On Fri, Oct 27, 2006 at 02:42:49PM +, Duane Hill wrote: Currently, we are looking to install a server that will be doing content filtering for our main e-mail server. I thought I would toss this out to everyone to get some feedback on if the server would be adequate. The server is a Dell PowerEdge 6850 with the following: - Four 2.6 GHz/800Mhz/4mb Cache Dual-Core Intel Zeon 7110M processors - Eight GB DDR2 400Mhz ram - Four 300GB, 3Gbps, SAS, 10K RPM Hard Drives running Raid-5 on a PERC5/i controller Our main e-mail server services over 500 domains with an account total of around 40,000. The current filter server we have can not do any content filtering outside of itself (i.e. the MTA) because of CPU load (i.e. SpamAssassin). Any message scanning where the message size is over 1.5K will kill the CPU. The current filter server we have in place is rejecting an average 2.4 million per day with just the common blacklisting and some other things that are set in place. I *think* this should handle your load. Personally from my years of ISP experience, I'd strongly favor going the road of multiple identical servers in parallel rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. E.g. use two 4 CPU servers rather than one 8 CPU (4x dualcore) server. The difference is that if it comes up just short, or if load jumps up again, it's easier to add a 3rd server and cut it into the mail path than to upgrade a server which is handling all your filtering. You also don't need fast hard drives on a filtering server; it's almost all gonna be pushing the CPU and RAM. Totally agreed! I support mail servers for a living. . . . The other thing I would like to know is what kind of an operating system would one install on this new server? This'll get you into a religious war for sure... I would favor FreeBSD latest (6.x), but any version of Linux with a good package system and a recent 2.6 kernel is a good choice - maybe better than FreeBSD at using 8 CPUs. Reasonable possibilities include CentOS, Gentoo, Debian. I'm not a big Linux head, others may have stronger opinions on that front. Have a look at Solaris 10. It's free, and very well tested. SA runs very, very will on it. It handles multi cpu well, and gets patched well. jay plesset sr. support engineer, sun microsystems. -- Clifton
