On Mar 1, 2004, at 11:33 PM, Ron Henderson wrote:
I am looking at building my first Linux email system. I very much would like to use Linux over windows/exchange for all the obvious reasons. The Servers need to host @1400 pop3 accounts. I was wondering if any of you could tell me if it is possible to cluster multiple mail servers for redundancy/performance. What distro / mail server software do you all recommend?
If you're not already familiar with *nix MTA's, I suggest you look into Postfix. It's a drop-in replacement for Sendmail, with a much better security record. Postfix is a modular design (unlike Sendmail's monolithic design) with a simple configuration style (unlike Sendmail's m4/cf). For your retrieval duties, consider using a POP/IMAP server like UW's or Courier IMAP. I prefer the latter due to the better security history, but you'll also want to consider which mail storage format you prefer. UW uses mbox, Courier uses maildir. Postfix supports writing to both.
If you're concerned about load, first make sure your hardware is fully optimized. Hardware RAID with SCSI and an advanced filesystem (XFS is preferred) is a good step, at least for your mail store. You needn't be concerned with HA projects at the host level, unless you want to try a simple load balancer like python director (for failover and connection balancing).
If you can afford the time and a few bucks to read O'Reilly's Postfix book, it'll be worth your while. Then, when you're comfortable with the basics, google for "high volume mail server" and fill in the gaps.
HTH.
-- Jason Dixon, RHCE DixonGroup Consulting http://www.dixongroup.net
