Community Knowledge Base

SmarterMail System Requirements

SmarterMail was designed to operate efficiently with multiple applications on the same server. Below are the minimum system requirements solely for SmarterMail. If SmarterMail is running on a server with other applications, those need to be taken into consideration and may add to the requirements listed below. In addition, high-load / high-volume servers may need to adjust the requirements as needed:

  • Windows Server 2016 64-bit
  • Microsoft .NET Framework
  • 4GB RAM
  • 2-core CPU
  • 1GB disk space for installation, not including mail data, file storage, etc.
  • Dedicated IP address
  • Dedicated domain name (subwebs and/or virtual directories are not supported)
  • Active internet connection
  • Microsoft 2010 C++ Redistributable Packages (required for ClamAV)
  • Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS)

Minimal IIS Settings

  • Dedicated domain name for SmarterMail website (subwebs are not supported)
  • Application Development Features
    • .NET Extensibility
    • ASP.NET
    • ISAPI Extensions
    • ISAPI Filters
  • Common HTTP Features
    • Default Documents
    • Directory Browsing
    • HTTP Errors
    • Static Content
  • Health and Diagnostics
    • HTTP Logging
    • Request Monitor
  • Performance Features
    • Static Content Compression
  • Security
    • Request Filtering

App Pool Settings

Below are the settings for the App Pool that are typically recommended for the best web interface and EAS/EWS/MAPI performance. These settings keep the app pool running 24/7 and only do a nightly recycle at 2am server time. these are JUST the settings that are changed from the defaults:

  • .NET CLR Version: v4.0
  • Managed Pipeline Mode: Integrated
  • Name: SmarterMail -- we generally recommend naming the App Pool the same as your SmarterMail site as this helps troubleshoot issues.
  • Start Mode: AlwaysRunning
  • Identity: NetworkService
  • Idle Time-out (minutes): 0
  • Load User Profile: False
  • Specific Times: TimeSpan[] Array

Can SmarterMail Be Installed "In the Cloud"? (I.e., on Azure, Amazon AWS, etc.)

To put it simply, yes. However, the question really is "Should SmarterMail Be Installed In the Cloud" using one of the various cloud-based virtualization platforms?

Services like Azure and Amazon's EC2 platform, as well as other cloud providers, have some things to consider when determining how well any mail server will run. For example, some cloud services don't offer static IP addresses, instead rotating the IP addresses that are used. This can cause issues with items like DNS records and affect mail delivery. Some have issues with disk I/O or have various other issues that adversely affect SmarterMail's performance. These issues can be overcome, but generally only when subscribing to high-end plans that are offered, and these can run into the thousands of dollars a month.

Therefore, while you can install SmarterMail on a cloud service such as Amazon's EC2, it is not necessarily the best solution. Using a VM with proper RAID configuration, either hosted on-premise or with a hosting provider, is generally the best, and most cost-effective, solution.

Note: Each installation and environment is unique. Extra load caused by excessive messages or email accounts and/or other factors may require more disk space, memory, CPUs and/or CPU cores, database allocation, etc. than suggested in the Online Help. SmarterTools recommends that system administrators slowly add domains to the server and watch how they impact the server. In addition, email patterns indicate that the number of email messages per account are increasing by approximately 60% every two years. It is important to keep this growth in mind when planning your rollout.