Hardware Specs

[Omar]

Dear All,
We are a new start-up IT company and we are interested in offering hosted email service to our local clients. Honestly, we don't have any idea on how to setup the platform using zimbra and what's needed as hardware and software.

We would appreciate if anyone could advice us on:
1. optimal and ready-to-implement network architecture (firewall, zimbra servers, datastore server,….etc)?
2. All necessary hardware specs for all servers?
3. All necessary Software?

Our targets are:
1. 1000 users with 1 GB per mailbox.
2. Run Zimbra pro edition with Zimbra mobile
3. Manage multi-domain accounts with one IP
4. Internet connection at least 1MB.
5. Have network architecture with minimum number of servers.

Thank you in advance for your support,
Omar

[mmorse]

Welcome to the forums,
While your probably going to be a lot less users than the typical hosting provider /partners/hosting_partners.html you can still contact sales@zimbra.com, there are professional services available that take care of this entire process.

We would appreciate if anyone could advice us on:
1. optimal and ready-to-implement network architecture (firewall, zimbra servers, datastore server,….etc)?
2. All necessary hardware specs for all servers?
3. All necessary Software?

The operating system you use is going to be your first choice, see here for the list of supported Network Edition operating systems: /products/downloads.html
(clustering is provided via RHCS -which uses RHEL)
Then read the quick start & admin guide: /products/documentation.html

Our targets are:
1. 1000 users with 1 GB per mailbox.

-In a SAN or directly on the server?

Our targets are:
3. Manage multi-domain accounts with one IP

-check easily done with virtual hosts

Our targets are:
4. Internet connection at least 1MB.

-are you asking us to find you a provider? or saying you have 1MB in/out?

Our targets are:
5. Have network architecture with minimum number of servers.

-Reliability comes into play, do you want multiple mailstores w/ failover (hot standby) using RHCS? a backup of the ldap? another mta to handle the load?
(we need some stats, on usage/typical mail volume/messages sizes in-out)

[Omar]

Thanks Mike for your reply.

Here is a quick reply to your questions:

-For OS we will probably use RHEL (RedHat).
-Probably we will use SAN (external storage).
-We will have 1MB in/out
-We don't have precise stats for the moment but please consider options with multiple mailstores, backup for LDAP and another MTA.

We will not have heavy loads to manage. We can start with 150 users active in same time with typical mail volume: 150KB.

Thanks,
O.

[mmorse]

If you contact professional services there is a sizing spreadsheet available.