[OT] - Sizing SendMail Servers

[Ugo Bellavance]

Miguel Koren OBrien de Lacy wrote:
> This is slightly off topic. We have been asked to size an installation based on Linux
> as the O.S. for handling emails for about 200,000 to 300,000 users. I expect the
> emails to be quite small per user (just a guess so far of 5k or less) because this is
> mobile email oriented. I have no information yet about how many messags there would be
> per day (maybe 1,000,000?). There would be no spam checking at this phase. I expect
> that this will require load balancing a few servers (one for scanning and x por
> mailboxes?). I have 3 questions:
>
> a) I would like to use Clam. I didn't find scanner performance comparisons. Would
> scanner selection make a big difference with this load?
> b) Can someone share experiences of how many email accounts can be normally
> accomodated on a Linux server assuming disk space is adequate (5,000, 10,000, 50,000,
> etc.)?
> c) Which distribution/MTA combination would handle this type of load best?
>

See the MAQ (Most Asked Questions) page (see url at the bottom of each
message).  At the bottom there is a list of real-life examples, and one
of the first points of the MAQ gives what is the max # of message the
author managed to process/day with one high-perf., Dual-Xeon server.
One thing is sure is that you need loads of ram.  I'd be curious to see
how dual opterons would perform.

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