System Requirements - Small Systems

[wolrah]

Originally Posted by jholder

Great tips.

Just an FYI, 64 bit requires more mem than 32 bit because memory management changes. The instructions are larger, thus the memory requirements are larger.

Though one should note that with something like Zimbra which doesn't benefit from 64 bit computation on its own, the only reason to be running it in 64 bit mode is if you are using 4+GB of memory anyways, at which point a modest increase in the size of the binaries isn't a huge deal.

Just doing a quick check between my Debian Etch systems, one 64 bit and the other 32 bit, the binary size gain seems to range from 10-15%. Regardless, the amount of space in memory used by program code is minuscule compared to data space, so while the increased size is a valid point I see no reason anyone should ever be concerned with it. If you have a reason to run 64 bit, you have enough RAM that it doesn't matter.

[dwmtractor]

Originally Posted by mmorse

Unless he puts in 8+GB and wants to allow that box to 'hibernate' -but I seriously doubt he plans to hibernate his mailserver

LMAO, Mike!

Actually I did upgrade to 2 GB on Friday and I've been watching it; I don't think the box has even touched the swap since I powered it up! Now it's time to migrate the rest of my users and I'll keep an eye on it, but I can say with certainty that the performance difference between 512 MB and 2 GB is quite noticeable. As I said when I started this thread, I'm only running on a 1.4GHz processor but with the appropriate RAM it appears that it'll address our needs nicely.

Thanks as always, guys!

Dan

[mmorse]

lol-good to hear

actually believe it or not: the otherday someone (in a work setting no less) said they powered off their servers overnight - zimbra boxe(s) included. I think they wanted to find a way to reduce the traffic strain when they first brought it back online-like um...just leave it up... They never said, but I guess they had power usage issues, or it was within a workgroup? Ya, mail servers aren't generally designed to be shut off/hibernated all the time. Guess they were ok with the possibility of loosing mail because their machines were down when someone else keeps retrying delivery and failing after x time/retries. But to each his own.

[packdog5]

Found it, 256MB - though he did sacrifice AS/AV & the logger service (well on a single server install he didn't need imap/pop proxy either obviously).
By no means the first, keeping in mind that the min requirements go up over time - ram sizes always appreciate (someone should have just called it 'YANMRAM' - you always need more RAM) but he did nicely document his steps:
/forums/zimbra-success-stories/8951-zimbra-rocks.html

I clicked on the forum link (about running a system on 256 MB) and it's gone; is this info no longer workable? Thanks...
Signed, the dog

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by packdog5

I clicked on the forum link (about running a system on 256 MB) and it's gone; is this info no longer workable? Thanks...
Signed, the dog

It hasn't gone, it's here in the wiki and here in the forums.

It is not recommended that you run Zimbra on such a small amount of RAM, you will most likely hit problems. RAM is cheap, install more than 256MB.

[packdog5]

I went to the wiki but...

"Disable any UNNECESSARY [my emphasis] services, such as AntiVirus, AntiSpam..."??

well, I need to upgrade anyway and not just the RAM

thanks Bill

[mmorse]

Welcome to the forums,

Ya know I did mention that...

Originally Posted by mmorse

Found it, 256MB - though he did sacrifice AS/AV & the logger service (well on a single server install he didn't need imap/pop proxy either obviously).

Also, It's possible he might have had another AS/AV service - perhaps he had a multi-server setup with a 2nd MTA elsewhere with either zimbra or running something entirely different

[packdog5]

Originally Posted by mmorse

Ya know I did mention that...

yes, I know you did mention that, but I was looking for the particulars of what he did for myself, and yadda-yadda, etcetera

and my emphasis was more a commentary on the what he thought was "UNNECESSARY" in his instruction of what to turn off such as AV/AS

so...I thank for your commentary and your helpful hints (some help anyway) and I have decided to steer clear of Zimbra as a solution for calendaring, emailing and online / offline information control

the customer is not always right, but he's sometimes a hell of a lot easier to talk to their than the online help

give my regards to Jerry, Susan and the rest of the new Zimbra people

[mmorse]

Anything we can help with?

I hope performance usage based on 256MB wasn't the deciding factor!

How many users are we talking?

As in general those looking to run on 256MB are generally though to be single users & "well, I need to upgrade anyway and not just the RAM" would generally get me thinking single server setup w/ < 5 users.

I assume you've had some some internal communication going on - I'm not a zimbra employee so I wouldn't know...

Are you trying some scalability testing for a client? Have you seen: Performance Tuning Guidelines for Large Deployments - ZimbraWiki
/blog/archives/2006/08/zimbra_benchmar.html

I would then contact zimbra sales/support for help with sizing/load testing/etc; there's some professional services people available who can help to calculate & setup large deployments.

Could you provide us with a list of some things you find lacking?
-Excluding things coming in v5 like tasks, IM, new file control w/ Briefcase, etc
Their always looking for enhancement ideas-it's how the product grows.

"online / offline information control" - referring to ZDesktop?