Re: e3k upgrade - hardware spec
- From: "Paul Robichaux [MVP]" <paulr@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 10:33:01 -0400
In article <2D1CF46D-FA93-4BE0-9078-4EE366F95AC3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
George <George@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just joined a company that is running E3k SP1 on a single CPU box with
> Xeon 2.8Ghz processor with 2Gb of RAM. Trend Micro Scan Mail is also
> installed on the box as well as iHateSpam. TrendMicro is reporting between
> 45000 and 85000 messages scanned per day. This is on the backend server.
> The front end one is a slower machines which is currently setup to send all
> outbound mail and handle few OWA users...
>
> I'd like to replace both machines, but am unsure of the spec and
> configuration of the new machines. I'd like to have a cluster to increase
> availability, but am not sure whether I need the front-end - we haven't got
> many OWA users and more powerful machine should be able to handle the
> outbound mail. We also have NetApp IP SAN so the new cluster will have its
> data on it. The exchange store is split up in two storage groups with five
> stores - all about 80Gb. Both machines in the cluster will be xeon maybe with
> 4Gb RAM, but I would appreciate any advise from techies who have been down
> this road before.
George, if the hardware you've already got is handling the load OK, why
replace it now? I'm not sure that moving to a cluster will buy you any
availability, because I don't know how comfortable you are with
designing and maintaining a cluster. I'd say that you don't need more
RAM or CPU horsepower unless you're having performance problems.
With Exchange 12 on the horizon, you'll probably want to take advantage
of its 64-bit support. That argues in favor of buying 64-bit hardware,
which is already widely available. However, there's no point in buying
replacement servers now unless you need them-- the same amount of money
will buy you more capability in six or twelve months if you can hold off.
If you have a more complicated environment, or just like to play with
beta tools, have a look at Microsoft's new capacity planning tool,
System Center Capacity Planner. You can get a beta from
<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/systemcenter/evaluation/cap
acity/default.mspx>.
Cheers,
-Paul
--
Paul Robichaux <paulr@xxxxxxxx>
MVP - Exchange
Exchange security book: http://www.e2ksecurity.com
FAQs: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exchange.htm &
http://www.swinc.com/resource/e2kfaq.htm
.
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