[Dovecot] Dovecot and SATA Backend

[Eric Jon Rostetter]

Quoting Nicolas GRENECHE <nicolas.greneche at gmail.com>:

> I plan to run a dovecot IMAPS and POPS service on our network. We
> handle about 3 000 mailboxes. I thought first buying a topnotch server
> (8 cores and 16 Go RAM) with equalogic iSCSI SAN SAS 15K for storage
> backend.

Sounds like overkill to me, but if you have the money go for it. :)

I run mine on an 8 core (dual quad core) system with 4G RAM, using
SATA (would have preferred SAS, but cost was an issue for us).

> created on a separete local filesystem. My question is : for 3000
> users, is it possible to have only a SATA backend attached to my
> topnotch server (to handle bigger mail quotas) by storing index on
> local hard drives (SAS drives) ?

Sure.  If you only have one dovecot server without any failover this
is fine.  If you have multiple (active or passive) servers then more care
is required, and you need to decide on the level of risk you want to take.

> Extra question, what is the better : iSCSI SATA backend or NFS share ?

iSCSI would be better than NFS IMHO.

> NFS share is more convenient to have a failover server.

If you introduce NFS and/or a failover server, your local index question
gets much more complex...

Is that a design requirement, desire, or future option?

> Thanks for your help.
>
> Regards,
>
> --
> Nicolas Grenèche - Orléans University - France
> http://blog.garnett.fr (in french)


-- 
Eric Rostetter
The Department of Physics
The University of Texas at Austin

This message is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied.  Use this message at your own risk.