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

["Jerry Farquhar" <jerry@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks again for the feed back.

Jerry

-----Original Message-----
From: cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Steve Werby
Sent: Saturday, December 21, 2002 1:08 PM
To: cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [cobalt-users] RE: Raq4 - Fail Over/Backup Email for a
domain..


"Jerry Farquhar" <jerry@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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.

This can't be achieved via DNS alone, but it's feasible.  You'll need 2+ MX
records for the domain, pointing to separate physical machines.  Then you'll
need incoming email on all mail servers to either be delivered to the other
mail servers or a way to sync the files.  This is not as straightfoward as
it may seem and you'll likely want to use a MTA that supports the maildir
format instead of mbox.

> 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.

Feasible.  I'll be blunt - you're asking about high availability solutions
that require quite a bit of skill and expertise to implement (and at a
fairly high cost) on the users list of a server appliance.  You may find the
answer you're looking for here, but realize that the vast majority of those
who read this list have no experience with anything close to like what you
need.  And that's not a knock on the users of this list, it's just my
opinion that there are better resources to get advice for the questions
you're posing.  You may be better served by asking questions on the
isp-linux list or one of the lists that deals specifically with one of the
MTAs you'll likely have to choose (qmail, Postfix and Exim come to mind).
Cobalt boxes just aren't the right solution.  My 2 cents.

--
Steve Werby
President, Befriend Internet Services LLC
http://www.befriend.com/


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