Exch2003 FE & BE server, which one need more h/w resources? 1

[zacca]

Hi there,

I'm prepare 2 servers to build exchange 2003 with frontend & backend server.

Supplier A told me that I should use more ram & faster cpu on frontend server, while Supplier B told me that I should use more ram & faster cpu on backend server.

Just wondering what should I do? Many thanks!

 

[Marcs41]

A or B ?

Here is C :
It depends.
If the FE is handling several BE's, obviously the FE will have alot of traffic.

But, in general, you can safely say the BE server needs the most, as that is where everything eventually gets handled, mailstores, every single user is connecting to it, storing, moving, deleting.
Also, all internal mail gets handled there.
So .. in general, supplier B is correct.

As a side point, RAM is cheap, so the more the better.
The CPU does not really play that much of a role, unless you are serving thousands of users and generating loads and loads of email, you would not really see much difference between a 2 GHz an a 3 GHz Pentium 4, provided there is plenty of RAM.

Marc
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[zacca]

Thx Marc! 2 vote to 1, then I'll use the better h/w for backend! ;-)

 

[ricpinto]

zacca:

Marc said it depends which I agree, what's my concern is the basis of supplier A. Maybe you have several BE's. The only certain in this scenario is FE does not require much disk storage.