Cpanel/WHM systems... can they be separated?

Hi Cpanel forum people!

I'm thinking of buying Cpanel for my hosting company, but I just have couple of questions (probably more once I get some answers :P).

If (when) I buy CPanel and WHM, is it possible to have the network setup like so:

System1: Web-server, Cpanel installed
System2: MySQL & DNS (primary) server
System3: Managment box, WHM installed, DNS (secondry)

OR, must I have WHM, Cpanel and everything else on 1 box?

My other question is to do with our mail server software. We've recently just bought MailMax 5.5, and I'm wondering if this will intergrate with Cpanel? It's not to much of a problem if it doesn't, because it came with it's own administrative web-application, but it would be nice to be able to do everything in 1 place.

I'm also interested on what peoples opinions are of the community surrounding Cpanel, as there are many Cpanel like applications out there, and some seem to have more vibrant communities surrounding them than others... some seem to have many very helpful inhabitants, others seem to be like desert wilderness with sparse activity.

Thanks in advance!

 

Thanks DSLWeb, support turn around time is definatly important, and it sounds like you've had a good experience with it.

As for my other 2 questions, can anyone shed some light on the first one in particular? I'm really just wondering if WHM and cPanel be be run on separate servers, or are they required to be on the same box... if it turns out they both need to be on the same box as apache, does that also mean MySQL and BIND need to be aswell, or are these able to be run on remote servers?

To lesser extent, I'd also like to know about cPanel and MailMax... do they intergrate?

Thanks again...

 

Thanks for that... lets me get a clearer picture of how it all works.

I have some questions about the extendability of cPanel, but I think I'll start another thread about that...

Thanks again.