I’m saying farewell to a server today. A server which I acquired almost 6 years ago. A server which had been running calmly and efficiently for all that time with only the occasional kiss of software upgrades. A server which had defended it’s users from all manner of attacks. That is, until late last year…
The server is… was a Barracuda SpamFirewall model SF-300a. When I started at my current company, they were running McAfee anti-spam thingie whatever version. And they were running it right on the Exchange 2000 server. Within two months, I converted a little used desktop to a incoming email server with SpamAssassing/ClamAV to offload the over 30,000 spam attempts each day. This worked okay but needed to be watched to make sure it was working properly and did not have some of the refinements that were available in commercial offerings. So, I got an eval unit of the Barracuda and a month later purchased it. It worked just great for the longest time. It could handle the 150 user accounts easily. It had automatic updates of anti-spam rules and anti-virus definitions. It also had a very easy to use quarantine system that users could access via daily emails. Over the years, I had many vendors try to pitch me their new, “better than Barracuda” system. Frankly, it just wasn’t worth my time to truly investigate options to improve a system that was already running very well. I had a mile long list of pressing needs to take care of.
But then, the problems started. It first happened in November of last year. All of a sudden, we were not receiving any emails from the outside. I checked on the SpamFirewall and found out it had crashed. I had to go into the server and power cycle the unit. It came up just fine and we started receiving email again. Then, in December, it happened three more times. I was a little frustrated. Especially since the only way I could get it back was to hit the red button on it. When it happened at 11pm New Year’s Eve, I was like, I HAVE to get this resolved.
I started looking at other options. While I did have the hardware warranty on the unit where it could be replaced, I wanted to see what my other options were. After all, I really didn’t want to have to worry about a single point of failure on my network if I could avoid it. I considered signing up with MessageLabs or Postini to do offsite mail reception. But, quite frankly, I feel they are a little overpriced for what they offer. And… I didn’t want to have to retrain all my users. That terrified my the most.
So… I decided to go ahead and call in for a replacement hardware. But, while on hold, I was poking around on Barracuda’s website and saw that they now offer a VMware version of their appliances. It made sense for them. Their appliances are really just standard servers of various levels. My SF-300a is barely a cheap desktop with a Linux OS and other packages. The real power of the SpamFirewall was the management software. But… I don’t have any VMware. Yet…
Coincidentally, I had just got approval to buy six new servers for my main server room. Most of the servers I had were pretty old and needed upgrades. While deciding if I should go with individual servers or a blade/chassis system, I got pitched with a VMware solution. I’ll have to post the details on that once it gets ordered. Long story… Unlike this one… Uh…
So, I decided to grab the ESXi HyperVisor and put it on a converted desktop (OptiPlex 960: Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM and 500GB hard disk). Loaded up the SpamFirewall Virtual Appliance Eval and started playing. It was definitely faster. I ended up deciding to go with it and put an order in for it. I got a reasonable trade-in value for the remaining warranty and subscription on my hardware unit. Though, I must say, it was painful to get the virtual appliance actually ordered and activated. It seemed like they weren’t fully prepared on their end. But, it got taken care of and I’m a proud new “owner” of a Barracuda SpamFirewall SF-300Vx. Yeah!
Now, I just have to box up the old one and send it in. I have no idea why I kept the box…
–Justin
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