Email Servers? Basic advise needed.

[Jason Dixon]

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