Mail server recommendations
 

I am looking for a mail server solution. I am currently using iMail in a Win2003 environment. We were looking to switch to @Mail, but those jokers do not seem to want our business. The sad part is we already had a working relationship with them in another server we were managing. Anyway this is what I am doing on my current server.

Approx 10000 users accounts (possibly going you to 27000 users shortly)
Approx 2500 domains

Our needs are:
Scalability (the number of domains and users can change greatly)

Need a user friendly, customizable web interface for the end users-- also like a web interface for administration but end users interface is more important.

Runs in a Linux environment

Need GREAT Enterprise support. Easy to contact, fast to respond.



If anyone has any suggestions we would appreciate it. I have been working with the people at @Mail for over a month and they do not seem to want our continued business, as they will not get things done when they promise and then will not return emails or phone calls.

Thanks for any suggestions
George

Take a look at http://www.zimbra.com

Zimbra is probably the biggest name at the moment. If you want mail, you could also go to something like Postfix with an IMAP server (Dovecot, Cyrus, etc.) and setup Squirrelmail as a Web GUI - I know a University that does this for 15,000+ users.

Sun also makes the Java Messaging System - not free, but seems to have very widespread use in Unix shops, and is definitely scalable for enterprise use.

Yeah, I would have suggested the same but he mentioned "Enterprise Support" and not just use. Zimbra from my experience has pretty good support.

Thanks for the advice. I looked at Zimbra's web site and it looks promising. The support is very important--I like free $, and on many things I can spend time searching for a fix when a problem arises. But with the email if a problem were to arise I need a fix ASAP and it is worth some cost to have the support available. I still prefer the system to be free (as in open not $) but that is not even a major priority as long as the support is there. If anyone has any others I should look at let me know. We had planned to use @Mail, but since things do not seem to be working out with that we are in a shopping phase.

Maybe I am naive, but why not Microsoft Exchange Server 2003?

Nick

Well let's see. What's the name of this site . . . .. .

Oh yeah. linuxquestions.org.

Does exchange run on any linux platform? No? Geez that's really surprising. I would think such an awesome MTA as exchange would open their code up and port it to every OS on the planet!

And the OP asked about quick support. Have you ever received quick support from microsoft? I didn't think so.

Peace,
JimBass

As you'll probably find, most people who post here aren't looking for Microsoft solutions... given that it's a Linux board.

All anti-M$ sentiment aside, if all you want is email, Exchange is horrible overkill. I've consulted for a number of companies that had Exchange running just because "that's what we use with Outlook". Or, even worse (rolls eyes) because they had *TWO* people who wanted email on their Blackberries, so they bought Blackberry Enterprise Server to use with Exchange.

Even if you want full calendaring, etc. that Exchange provides, there are still ways to do it that are very robust and Linux-/Unix-based.

I guess I saw this ..

Nick

Nick,

A few reasons not Exchange--
My experience with MS Exchange (which admittedly has mainly been end user) is that it is most suited for internal office mail server. I am needing a server for approx 10,000 on 2,500 domains with users spread all over the US. From my knowledge Exchange is not capable of that and if it is I do not think it is the best solution.

Currently we are only using 2 Windows servers--one being the iMail server, the other being a web server for users who insist on using Front Page. We prefer Linux servers by far. We are at a time that in the near future we will need to replace the server that iMail is running on--both physical hardware and the server software. So while we are at this point we are wanting to switch to a Linux solution.

I would like the mailserver to be open source software. It can still be commercial, I just would like the functionality and freedom that OSS provides. Although as stated before, that is not on the top of my priority list for the mail server.

George

In that case, my vote would definitely be for Postfix. You could also look into Cyrus IMAP, and I think there are a few others that are proven to scale well.

I recently went about looking for a mail server to run on Solaris, I spent a few weeks investigating before I decided to just use a port of Postfix. But believe it or not, when I was investigating, I found Wikipedia to be a good place to start - they have a page that lists pretty much every mailserver known, and what OS it runs on. I didn't trust any more of the information, but the list had links to individual project pages.

Postfix + Cyrus
 

Yep, if you want mail then Postfix (SMTP) + Cyrus (IMAP, POP, SIEVE) are the best, and probably best supported, choices. And commercial support for both is available from various parties.

Cyrus scales up and up and up, simply amazing performance.

At a previous employer, our CEO wanted Exchange only cause he could then share his calendar. Even though we offered several open source solutions. They started out with 50 licenses for execs and managers. This then turned into wanting to migrate the whole company to Exchange. So to get calendar sharing, it cost the company literally thousands of dollars. The CEO even questioned the cost of it cause he was just technologically stupid and didn't understand anything anyways but yeah, most Execs suck with their reasonings, I'm still baffled how they get to to the top. I guess shit does float as some would say. ;)

Zimbra uses Postfix on the back end if you were wondering.. and spamassassin, and a few other pieces.

It's basically the same setup I do manually with a really awesome webmail frontend and shared calendaring. now that the latest version of Zimbra supports Debian Etch, I plan to switch my mail server over to Zimbra.

Zimbra can support your treo and blackberry and iphone users (commercial version only)


I have too many friends that have suffered through the corrupt mailstores and other issues with Exchange, that given the choice I don't think I ever want to run exchange myself.

Exchange is a bitch. I hated backing it up with Netbackup. I never had to administer it myself directly as that would be the Windows guys. My two previous employers, I can't count the times it went down and email was unavailable. It went down more often than a 5 dollar hooker most days.. ;)