We are running about 17,000 users on a Alpha workstation. 166MHZ Alpha with 128MB Ram using Digital Unix.
Software is an open source mail and pop server.
The machine is normally not heavily loaded.
This however is not because our machine is a stud and open source rules. (does rule but that's a different post) This is due to our usage pattern.
We have a lot of light users some who read mail with pine some who read via pop, but very few who get large attachments and/or leave their mail on the server for long periods of time so that they build up into huge mailboxes. They also have a tendency to spread the load out over the entire day. There is no 8-9 am peak as some places are going to have as their users arrive in the office and read their mail.
My point here is that it is not enough to say I am going to build a mail system for 20K users you have to understand (or guess correctly) what the users are going to be doing and when they are going to do it and plan based on the *peaks* you are going to support. If it runs fine for 23 hours a day and like a dog when everone trys to use it in the morning that will suck.
So Know Your Users, or your users will all know you.:)
>...because they fathom the great Internet mystery.
But it cost lots of money to be a member of the jet set.
It would seem to me that most people who can get someone to get them online can quickly figure out as much of the Internet Mystery as they want... i.e. how to send internet greeting cards.
So without a barrier to entry, and with the clueless media along to describe what is and what is not cool for the new net elite, I would think that it will quickly degenerate to a circus with only clowns in the center ring.
Slashdot Mirror
Software is an open source mail and pop server.
The machine is normally not heavily loaded.
This however is not because our machine is a stud and open source rules. (does rule but that's a different post) This is due to our usage pattern.
We have a lot of light users some who read mail with pine some who read via pop, but very few who get large attachments and/or leave their mail on the server for long periods of time so that they build up into huge mailboxes. They also have a tendency to spread the load out over the entire day. There is no 8-9 am peak as some places are going to have as their users arrive in the office and read their mail.
My point here is that it is not enough to say I am going to build a mail system for 20K users you have to understand (or guess correctly) what the users are going to be doing and when they are going to do it and plan based on the *peaks* you are going to support. If it runs fine for 23 hours a day and like a dog when everone trys to use it in the morning that will suck.
So Know Your Users, or your users will all know you.
Check out the Lance Armstrong Foundation
But it cost lots of money to be a member of the jet set.
It would seem to me that most people who can get someone to get them online can quickly figure out as much of the Internet Mystery as they want... i.e. how to send internet greeting cards.
So without a barrier to entry, and with the clueless media along to describe what is and what is not cool for the new net elite, I would think that it will quickly degenerate to a circus with only clowns in the center ring.
Check out the Lance Armstrong Foundation