Re: Very huge email service
On Wed, 24 Nov 1999, WOL - Andreas Plesner Jacobsen wrote:
>> >> Does anyone had to configure mail servers to serve 30 millon users,
>> >> with smtp and pop3, if so can you give any clue , because i dont know
>> >> from where to start.
>> >
>> >If I had to build this as a central system I wouldn't use Linux for the
>> >storage systems, I'd probably look into Hitachi or similar disksystems
>> >with a SPARC running Solaris (or several of them running in tandem)
>> >and some Veritas volume management.
>>
>> Last time I worked with a serious Sun machine it could only do 59MB/s
>> sustained disk throughput. This was an E6500 with Fiber Channel SCSI talking
>> to an A5000 disk array containing UltraSCSI drives. It had Veritas File
>> System and Volume Manager. I am certain that Linux could do better with less
>> hardware.
>
>Unfortunately I'm afraid the bottleneck wouldn't be the filesystem (add
>boxen vertically, and hash the maildirs out onto several filesystems).
>The problem with using Linux for NFS servers is the slowness of userspace
>NFS and instability of knfs (the places I've seen knfs under high load
>has suffered from repeated breakdowns, I'd love to help debugging this,
>but I have too much work on the network side, and have just started
>CCIE certification, so I don't have much of that ever needed time).
>Of course you could add Linux boxen with userspace NFS, but you'd need
>a lot...
How bad is the performance?
Linux running a user-space NFS server on a 10baseT network can support the
synchronous creation of over 100 files per second, which is more than any AIX
machine I have an account on can manage with a local hard drive.
I think that smart SMTP gateways are the way to split between several Linux
machines not NFS. The other option is to have NFS from a Netapp (which does
perfrom) and then have any machine deliver for any user.
>> >All this would be a costly solution, but I think it will be able
>> >to scale properly.
>>
>> The system we're talking about will cost less than $1 per user. When a
>> government is paying it shouldn't be a problem.
>
>You're right, but this seemed like a public offer (don't know the
>correct English word for this, and my dictionary is too old. What I
>mean is: The state throwing this together, different providers giving
>an offer, the cheapest wins)
Request for proposal. Tender. Call for bids.
Maybe a group of us should start sending out email to all the big Argentinian
ISPs offering to work for whoever submits the winning bid! I'd be quite
happy to live in Argentina for 6 months or so to implement such a system.
I'm sure that between the 5-6 of us who have been discussing this we have
enough combined skills and experience to complete this project with ease
provided that we have the hardware.
--
Electronic information tampers with your soul.
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