[imp] Re: Scalable Webmail HOWTO and LDAP doubts

[Eric Rostetter]

Quoting Sn!per <sniper at home.net.my>:

> Quoting Eric Rostetter <eric.rostetter at physics.utexas.edu>:
>
> > If you have 50K users, then that is a large install.  I would suggest
> > multiple machines with a load balancer (which is what my university does
> for
> > supporting >50K students).
>
> can you briefly describe the hardware and software requirement of your load
> balancer and any particular make/model that *highly* recommended.
>
> tia

Here in physics we use a BigIP system bought from Dell (as it is cheaper
than buying it from F5 directly).  It is very flexible as to how it does
the load balancing, and supports an ssl-accelerator in hardware to offload
the ssl from your web server.  But that isn't what you asked.

I'm not invloved on the campus level, so I can't speak authoritatively.
But I believe they use Cisco LocalDirector load balancers there.  The
mail spool is stored on NetApp appliances.  They have a bunch of Sun machines
to do the e-mail services (pop, imap, smtp, etc) which are behind the
load balancers.  I think then also they have another bunch of Sun machines
which do the web servers also I think behind the load balancers.  I don't
know how exactly they do the authentication/prefs, since it is linked into
our campus wide authentication system via custom code, but I bet it is
ldap. No idea how that is done though (how many servers, if they are load
balanced or not, etc.  Just a black box from my point of view).

--
Eric Rostetter
The Department of Physics
The University of Texas at Austin

Why get even? Get odd!