e3k design q

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

George - 12 Oct 2005 10:02 GMT

Hi,

I just joined a company that is running E3k SP1 on a single CPU box with
Xeon 2.8Ghz processor with 2Gb of RAM. Trend Micro Scan Mail is also
installed on the box as well as iHateSpam. TrendMicro is reporting between
45000 and 85000 messages scanned per day. This is on the backend server.
The front end one is a slower machines which is currently setup to send all
outbound mail and handle few OWA users...

I'd like to replace both machines, but am unsure of the spec and
configuration of the new machines. I'd like to have a cluster to increase
availability, but am not sure whether I need the front-end - we haven't got
many OWA users and more powerful machine should be able to handle the
outbound mail. We also have NetApp IP SAN so the new cluster will have its
data on it. The exchange store is split up in two storage groups with five
stores - all about 80Gb. Both machines in the cluster will be xeon maybe with
4Gb RAM, but I would appreciate any advise from techies who have been down
this road before.

Signature

George

Reply to this Message

Al Mulnick - 12 Oct 2005 19:06 GMT

The only downside to 80 GB stores is the amount of time it takes to restore
them, maintain them, etc. Recovery is the biggest factor when planning when
it comes to sizing. Otherwise, it should be fine.
OWA is much easier to deploy on a FE server and being able to route your
mail via a FE server has some advantages in terms of what the client sees.
Especially if things backup.

Hopefully that helps.

al

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> 4Gb RAM, but I would appreciate any advise from techies who have been down
> this road before.

Reply to this Message