Re: Sunfire 240 and Sun One messaging

From: Michael Vilain (vilain_at_spamcop.net)
Date: 12/31/03 

Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 15:01:27 -0800

In article <1a1dbhwgjb2qr$.1d572h5o6ny8m.dlg@40tude.net>,
 "W.B" <civikminded@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Thanks for your response.
> >
> > Yes, I'm saying that switching from a user-managed POP3/sendmail
> > environment where all you need to worry about is the size of your
> > /var/mail and /var/spool/mqueue filesystems to an IT-managed environment
> > that really can't be automated very well. You'll need to manage user's
> > public folders and their abuse of them, their email quota and when they
> > go over, and calendaring stuff.
>
> Our current setup uses an amalgum of tricks, hacks, configs to do the
> things that an exchange server does like group schedules, free/busy, user
> directory, etc.. It has become troublesome maintaing all these weird
> configurations, as well as 3 different versions of Outlook, so I want a
> client/server combo that does these things naitively. Plus I want to be
> able share a single calandar across many users, something I cannot do with
> POP/SMTP Outlook.
>
> > Be sure to buy lots of extra disk--users will find all sorts of stuff to
> > put on it now that they have more. And don't forget backing all this up
> > and writing procedures to restore user mailboxes (which _you_ now manage
> > instead of them).
>
> None of the Outlook .PST's are backed up *AT ALL* currently. Wouldnt
> having it all centralized actually make the backup job *EASIER*? I have a
> decent CA Brightstor setup in place, with a 10 cart loader.
>
> > If Exchange is easier to run and maintain, hold your nose and buy it.
> > But my guess is that you'll still have to offer the extended services
> > because _you_ will be managing the user's mail (and all those extra
> > services) rather than _the user_.
>
> Exchange might be the most viable option as much as I hate to admit it.
>
> > There may be a lot of pressure from users to offer this service but are
> > your "Powers That Be" willing to spend the money to support and maintain
> > the environment? Or will all this just be added to your current duties?
>
> I would be maintaining whatever we purchase. Much of my workload already
> is devoted to messaging, I'm hoping to simplify!
>

If you're already 'the mail guy', then finding a productivity solution
that centralizes things would make your life easier. I don't know
enough about Exchange to say it's better or how it will scale or what it
would take to keep it going day to day (backups and assorted
maintenance).

I was part of a sysadmin group that had to manage a Netscape Messaging
Server along with the Calendaring server on a single machine. We put
lots of disk on it to handle the 3000+ desktop systems. Even so, we had
people hitting quota regularly (those powerpoint presentations take many
MB). Rather than buy more disk, the Powers That Be decided to enforce
quotas. Users could put their folders on their desktops systems which
weren't backed up or setup a network folder on a Novell server which was
backed up nightly. Calendaring was underutilized but offered because it
was part of the entire package. We also had procedures for when someone
left the company so that managers could have access to the files before
they were deleted.

POP3/SMTP only gives you email, really. If you need additional services
like a global address book (we used LDAP), calendaring, and email
quotas, then SUN's product will probably work for you. Just be sure to
buy lots of disk _and_ sufficient tape capacity to back it up in a short
window unless that's not one of the services you'll be offering. You
should backup the system to local or SAN tapes unless you're running a
3rd party backup program (that's a whole other conversation). 

-- 
DeeDee, don't press that button!  DeeDee!  NO!  Dee...
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