Server Sizing

[TABCat]

Hi Gang,

I apologize, but after searching and coming up a bit light (and being a ZimNewbie), I need info for sizing new server farm (especially given the new release!).

The existing posts from last year reference setups on single core, dual processor servers w/ 2Gb RAM and > 80Gb RAID 0+1 storage, but really don't give expected throughput or account load figures to go with that configuration.

Can anyone give me an idea of the hardware requirements for say a 1000 user system w/ 500Mb avg mailbox, and 50 Message units/day? I should be able to scale from there.

As an alternative, is there a recommended load testing tool we might use to stress the system? We have a Single Processor, Dual Core Opteron system, w/ 4Gb RAM and 600Gb SATAII RAID array set to test, but we need stress info early.

Thanks!

[KevinH]

With the Network Edition we can supply some load tools under NDA. In general we don't release those. You should be able to support those 1000 users on a dual cpu 2gig RAM machine. In general you want to oversize to handle peaks so it might be a slight overkill but better to be over than under with sizing.

It will also depend on access. IMAP is more chatty than POP for example, and Outlook/Web UI would be less load on the system than say IMAP. Also depends if this is an office type environment where you have say a heavy peak at 9am when everybody gets in and checks their mail from the night before.