Archiving Specifications and Recommendations for FC 9*
Networking Requirements
FirstClass Archiving Services requires a minimum 100 Mbit/s network connection to the FirstClass Core Server.
Server Hardware
- For Macintosh Sites Archiving up to 5000 User Accounts
FirstClass Archiving Services for Mac OS X must be run on Apple Intel Macintosh hardware.
For sites running FirstClass Archiving Services on Macintosh OS X, we recommend a machine such as either the Mac Pro or the Mac XServe, equipped with a minimum of a single 2 GHz Dual-Core processor and 2 Gb of memory. We highly recommend RAID drives, either internal (for archives under 1 Terabytes) or an external NetApp StoreVault array (for archives over 1 Terabytes).
- For Windows and Linux Sites Archiving up to 5000 User Accounts
For sites running FirstClass Archiving Services on either Windows or Linux, we recommend a machine such as the Dell Poweredge 1900, equipped with a minimum of a single 2 GHz Dual-Core processor and 2 Gb of memory. We highly recommend RAID drives, either internal (for archives under 1 Terabytes) or an external storage solution such as a NetApp StoreVault (for archives over 1 Terabytes).
- For Sites Archiving More than 5000 User Accounts - Please contact us.
Disk Space Recommendations
As a general rule of thumb, we recommend that you should initially configure your FirstClass Archive Server with roughly double the disk space of your current FirstClass Network Store for each 24 months of retention. For example, if your current FCNS is 300 Gigabytes and you wish to retain all email for 48 months, we would recommend that the Archive Server should be provisioned at 300 Gigabytes * 2 or roughly 600 Gigabytes. If you are archiving only a small segment of your users, this requirement may be proportionately scaled down.
A more detailed formula for estimating storage space requirements is as follows:
The FirstClass development team points out that this estimate will change based on how quickly you expire mail on the core server. If the core server has a very short expiry period, then the core Network Store (NS) will be smaller. If the core server has a longer expiry, then the core NS will be larger. And of course, the size of the archive server will also change based on the retention period. So, if you have a longer retention period, your Archive Server NS will be larger than if you had a shorter retention period.
Putting this all together, we believe that the algorithm is as follows: Size of Archive Store = Size of Core Server Store X (Retention Period / Expiry Period)
In the initial example above, with a 2X factor, we were assuming that the retention period was twice the expiry period (e.g. core server has a 365 day expiry, archive server has a 2 year retention).
Here's another example: A site currently has a 90 day expiry, and is obliged to keep their mail for 7 years. The Core Server Network Store is 300 Gb. How big should their archive server store be?
Size of Archive Store = 300 Gb X (7 * 365 / 90) = 300 Gb X (28.4) = 8.5 Terabytes
Of course, all of this is complicated by the fact that most large servers will have multiple expiry periods (group based) and also multiple retention periods (also group based) so coming up with an exact number will be difficult. As emphasized in the introduction, a good external disk array will allow sites to start small and then grow the Archive Store on-the-fly.
Backups
The Archive Server is not a magical box that is immune to the normal hardware issues that can cause or contribute to data loss, or completely fail. The FCNS in the Archive Server needs to be backed up on a regular basis, just as the primary Network Store.
*When upgrading to FirstClass 10, it will not be necessary to upgrade to Archiving Services 10 at the same time. Open Text has determined that a 9.1 Archive Server will work with an FC 10 server without issue.
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Archiving Services System Requirements for FC 9 Published by FirstClass®
Windows 2000/2003/2008
Microsoft Windows Server or better recommended
128 MB available RAM, plus 100k/concurrent session
200 MB available disk space, plus additional storage for mail and user data
Intel Pentium 3 Class CPU or better (Intel Pentium 4 recommended), or equivalent AMD CPU (dual core recommended)
Mac OS X
Mac OS (PPC / Intel) 10.4.9 or 10.5.4
Mac OS 10.4.10 & 10.4.11 - NOT supported at all
128 MB available RAM, plus 100k/concurrent session
200 MB free disk space, plus additional storage for mail and user data
G5 / Intel or better
Linux
Any Linux distribution with a 2.6 based kernel, or a 2.4 kernel with NTPL threads support
128 MB available RAM, plus 100k/concurrent session
100 MB available disk space, plus additional storage for mail and user data
Intel Pentium 4 Class CPU, or equivalent AMD CPU
call Gregg at 207.588.5000
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