RE: [cobalt-users] RE: Raq4 - Fail Over/Backup Email for a domain..

["* KAPIL *" <kapil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Like I have said in response to another post on this list....not even
god himself needs 100% uptime. No provider can guarantee 100% uptime
because it is not financially viable.....never mind what their marketing
department promises. Having said that, there is a solution you can apply
that will meet your needs. As I understand it, you are simply trying to
ensure that mail addressed to your domain doesn't get bounced back in
the event your mail server is down. So...here's what you do...You have
your primary mail server which accepts all mail for your domain. Make
sure the MX record is set at the highest priority. Then you come up with
a secondary mail server and set the MX priority for it just a little
lower than the primary. Now, if the primary fails, the mail will start
flowing to the secondary. The secondary server will queue it and forward
it to the primary when it comes back up. Hope this helps!




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-----Original Message-----
From: cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jerry Farquhar
Sent: Saturday, December 21, 2002 10:36 AM
To: Cobalt-Users
Subject: [cobalt-users] RE: Raq4 - Fail Over/Backup Email for a domain..


Trying to find a way of providing a means nearly 100% uptime and fail
over.

Here is a thought I recently had and I'm hoping some one can tell me if
this is feasible or even possible.

I'd like to have the servers that do the DNS/MX records split/send the
same email messages to two physically different servers with different
domain names but the same exact user accounts on that should one of the
email/web servers fail the users could still send and retrieve messages
from the remaining server.

See a more graphical depiction of current and proposed arrangement
below:


Existing:
========================================================================
=
DNS/MX Server(s)
      |
	|
	-->-- Points to Domain "A" -> "Domain A" 		(Email
and Web)


** In this arrangement when "Domain A"'s server fails users are unable
to receive or send email messages.



Proposed Idea (if feasible):
========================================================================
=
In this situation Email is split and sent exactly the same to both
"Domain A" & "Domain B" all of the time not just if there is a failure
on "Domain A".

FYI #1 "Domain B" - would already have the exact same user email
accounts setup and users would have a secondary email client arrangement
that would check for messages on both servers all of the time.

FYI #2 - Part of the reason for wanting exactly the same email sent to
both domains all of the time is that if "Domain A" simply hangs and
looks active but really isn't and messages are sent to "Domain B" only
on failure of "Domain A" there's still a problem.


In Bound for: "Domain A" (Primary Web/Email Server)
	   |
	   |
DNS/MX Server(s)
	|    	|
	|	|
	|	-->-- Points to Domain "A" -> "Domain A" 	(Email
and Web)
	|
	|
	-->-- Points to Domain "B" -> "Domain B" 	(Email & Web
Optional)


Note: In a more perfect arrangement the Web address would fail over and
point to "Domain B" in a complete failure of the primary server "Domain
A"
========================================================================
=

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