Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:36:40 -0500 From: Bob Johnson <bob89@eng.ufl.edu> To: questions@freebsd.org Cc: Christian Tischler <mail@myunix.net> Subject: Re: [OT] Re: MS Exchange server on FreeBSD? Message-ID: <423B57F8.8070109@eng.ufl.edu> In-Reply-To: <4864.216.220.59.169.1111164325.squirrel@216.220.59.169> References: <423AD243.5030601@myunix.net> <1111157911.33063.10.camel@chaucer.jeays.ca> <4864.216.220.59.169.1111164325.squirrel@216.220.59.169>
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Ean Kingston wrote: >>On Fri, 2005-03-18 at 08:06, Christian Tischler wrote: >> >> >>>Hi, >>>I would like to run an MS exchange server. But I am not at all willing >>>to set up an MS box at all. As I know I could run something like VMware >>>virtual server or Wine, but I do not know if such an combination would >>>be stable (sopken in terms of windows stability). The next consideration >>>would be the performance of the overal setup. >>> >>>Any hints or suggenstions would be great. >>> >>> > >As someone who has inhereted an Exchange server I have a few hints for you. > >1 Run Exchange on a Dedicated Windows Server (2000 or 2003). Do not fiddle >with VMware or Wine. You are going to need a license for Windows to run >Exchange under VMware (or bochs). You are probably going to need a license >of Windows to run it under wine (if that is even possible). In any case, >you will lose stability if you don't dedicate a system to Windows. > >2 You need to keep the disk where Exchange stores its mail database at >least 55% free or Exchange will not work properly. This is because you >need to periodically rebuild the Exchange database to keep performance >tollerable. Also when mail is deleted in an exchange mail store, it is not >actually deleted but just marked for deletion. You need to take the mail >store offline (so nobody can access their mailbox) periodically and run a >tool to purge the deleted items. This takes hours on any decent sized mail >system. When this happens it creates temporary files roughly 110% the size >of the mail store. > [etc.] As someone who used to administer and Exchange Server, I agree. It is a serious pain, and requires constant handholding. I know someone who _loves_ Scalix (http://www.scalix.com). It's an Exchange replacement that runs on Linux (and maybe FreeBSD), but that's all I know about it. If you need to support Outlook clients, it might work for you, and it's probably cheaper than Exchange. - Bob
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