[BBLISA] OSS campus mail

[Daniel Feenberg]

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004, Rick Martin wrote:

> 
> Hi all.
> 
> Is anyone using open source software to support campus email?
> Any offer to share info on hardware/software configurations
> would be greatly appreciated.

You can usually check out anyone by telneting to port 25 of their
mailserver. I just checked UConn, BU and Northeastern. The first two were
running Sendmail and NE was running Postfix. I believe that nearly all
universities run Sendmail, Postfix or Exim. We run Sendmail on a small
installation, but if I were starting again I would try all three before
deciding. The details of what each can accomplish easily are different.
For example, Sendmail makes it almost impossible to keep a file copy of
each outgoing message, Postfix makes it trivial. 

You might want to check out the book "Sendmail Performance Tuning" for
guidance if you select sendmail. Also, consider a solid state disk for
message queues. There is a self-serving white paper by such a vender at
http://www.soliddata.com/pdf/bpsendmail.pdf




> 
> Background:
> 
> Running Exchange over a couple dozen servers, our campus mail
> went down for three days.  A "raid-50" failed, and restoring
> it was a nightmare.  The CIO got hot, and she wants the whole
> thing re-implemented to deliver uninterrupted service.  First
> order of business is a survey.
> 
> I got drafted to evaluate OSS because I run a couple of 
> department servers with sendmail + mimedefang + NAI + SA and such 
> for about 1,500 users.  The whole campus is a much bigger deal.
> 
> The campus will likely buy into some all-encompassing product, as 
> they are unwilling to give up any feature currently implemented 
> in Exchange, at least for the faculty users.
> 
> Of course the trade-off for license fees is programmer time for 
> integrating many pieces to achieve the result.  I can make 
> Scientific Wild-Ass Guesses, but could really benefit from anyone
> who has been there and done that.  Mainly we need a feel for how
> much time and money go into implementing, training, and upkeep.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Rick Martin
> UMass-Boston, CS Dept.
> 617-287-6440
> 
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