<html><body>Hello,<br /><br />I am working on an email solution using Gluster 3.3 for the primary storage of the actual email. The system is using dovecot and maildir. I will be using 10 servers for this configuration (hardware servers, not virtual systems) and I have a question about the setting this up with performance in mind. I've used gluster in the past and had varying success. For this problem, I have two specific options and I'm looking for advice on which one would perform better.<br /><br />1) 10 servers -- 4 systems would be 2U systems with ALL of the storage for email on them. These 4 systems would also be running services pertaining to email systems (IMAP/POP, SMTP, etc...). The remaining 6 systems are 1U systems and would connect to these systems for email storage while running email services (IMAP/POP, SMTP, etc...).<br /><br />2) 10 servers -- 10 1U servers running both storage and all services (IMAP/POP, SMTP, etc...).<br /><br />For this question, assume servers are the same (with the exception of either a 1U chassis or a 2U chassis). Same HDD (2T 7200RPM), same RAM (16G per system), same MB, same RAID controller, etc.. The RAID configuration of all 1U systems would be RAID1 while the RAID configuration of all 2U systems would be RAID5 with one hot spare.<br /><br />Basically, I'm trying to figure out if Gluster will perform better with more storage nodes in the storage block or if I would be better off consolidating the storage to a few of the systems and freeing up the resources for the email services on the remaining systems. I've had mixed results testing this in a KVM virtual environment, however it's getting down to the time where I need to make some decisions on ordering hardware. I do know that RAID1 and RAID5 do not compare apples to apples for performance, I'm looking for thoughts from the community as to which way you would set it up.<br /><br />Kind Regards,<br /><br />Jason<br /><br /></body></html>