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Technical Help & Discussion => General Tech Discussion, News & Q&A => Topic started by: dingo on May 17, 2004, 04:30

Title: Email/File server
Post by: dingo on May 17, 2004, 04:30: Hi guys,

Could anyone please tell me what is the disadvantage of using a single server for both file and email service?
What are the reasons for using separate servers for this?

Thanks in advance.
Title: Re:Email/File server
Post by: Adept on May 17, 2004, 07:15: Hi Dingo :welcome:

I think it is down to the amount of people who will be accessing these functions.

If you are an organisation of hundreds of people, all regulrarly accessing files and emailling, a single server may not be able to adequately supply enough power for both functions.

Another advantage of separate servers is that they can be restarted independantly.

I look after a number of servers in my organisation of sixty or so people. Our main server is a twin 2.8GHz Xeon with 2GB of memory. It is more than adequate to serve the demands of the Exchange server software and file & print sharing for this number of people.
Title: Re:Email/File server
Post by: Reno on May 18, 2004, 07:33: someones always gotta outdo ya i guess.... mines just a amd 2.1gig with 1gig of memory ::)
Title: Re:Email/File server
Post by: dingo on May 18, 2004, 11:28: Thanks Adept.
Just a thought, would the fact that all the companies data resides on the same computer as their incoming email cause problems (i.e a virus attached to an email)?
Title: Re:Email/File server
Post by: Adept on May 19, 2004, 07:01: Quote from: dingo on May 18, 2004, 11:28

would the fact that all the companies data resides on the same computer as their incoming email cause problems (i.e a virus attached to an email)?

Potentially, yes. But if you have adequate anti-virus protection this shouldn't be a problem. We have two separate anti-virus applications, one to check the incoming mail and another to check the files. Anti-virus software is also deployed to the workstations as a final protection measure.