imap scalability

[denz-wavenet]

hi!

Requirements:    host 10,0000 IMAP mailboxes

Usual setup:  LDAP/SMTP-postfix/cyrus-iamp

1. With a high end server hosting ( Dell 2.8 Ghz 2H ram ) running mail
delivery smtp postfix server doing ldap lookups, cyrus-iamp server
doing ldap authentication, can this system system handle 10,000 IMAP/POP3
users ?

2. If not Can the cyrus-imap data directories ( say residing in NFS ) be
shared  among different cyrus processes running on two identical
machines. Idea looks silly. Here using a load-balancing switch for
distribute requests among two servers.

3. Or with cyrus agrregate having,
    - 2 servers running [ Front End imap servers software + smtp server
each]
        DNS load balancing for 2 smtp servers(mail1.xx, mail2.xx) each
delivering mails to the respective front end. Hardware Load Balancing
 switch for imap servers.
    - 1 master Update server.
    - 2 BackEnd imapd servers each having their own set of mailboxes which
are stored on to a NFS/CIFS NAS. I'm not sure whether to use
        NAS or SAN here. can nfs be a bottleneck ?

which of the above looks more feasible ? 1 is easy to implement given that
such a system can handle the load. Need IMAP/MAIL gurus's
 opinion on this.

denzel

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