[Dovecot] Test environment question

I want to test out my first V1.2 Dovecot (upgraded from V1.1) instance.
What I have in mind to do is to run it on another machine that has the Inbox dir and homedirs NFS import mounted from the production mailserver. I then have 5 people test it in this test environment....

A) Then I can deal with the index filesystem in one of two ways:

1. Make it local OR
2. NFS import it from the production DC server Comments as to which is best? I have used #1 before...which caused some temporary unhappiness with the switchover and switchback....during which time the index is badly wrong and DC auto-rebuilds it...

B) Is there anything else I should do/not do? C) Any ugliness that will surface in this testing lashup but isn't important?

-- ==== Stewart Dean, Unix System Admin, Henderson Computer Resources Center of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York 12504 sdean@bard.edu voice: 845-758-7475, fax: 845-758-7035