[5526] in RedHat Linux List
Re: Backup Mail Server
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Allen Francom)
Thu Nov 21 21:44:35 1996
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 10:45:27 -0800 (PST)
From: Allen Francom <redhat_list@numedics.com>
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
cc: RedHat-List <redhat-list@redhat.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.91.961121112453.20086B-100000@snappy.smithphoto.com>
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
Hi.
I've heard of doing it as I am about to relate it, but I haven't done
this and I'm not sure of its effectiveness, but it sounded good ! :)
1. Get three machines
2. Set up machine #1 as an NFS "central" machine with big-time fast
drives and RAM
3. Set up both machines #2 and #3 as pointing to machine #1's
file system for mail, spool, etc.,
4. Set up DNS with MX so that it hits machine #2, then #3, then #2,
and basically toggles back and forth between the two.
( See someone who knows about DNS stuff... )
This way if machine #2 dies, the MX will eventually keep things working
since #3 will accept the mail the next time the incomming SMTP tries
to forward the message.
This has a potential reliability advantage, and a potential performance
advantage.
I make no guarantees, but a friend of mine did it this way and it made
sense, and seems interesting, so I mention it for your consideration.
Hopefully some people will demolish this concept and come up with
something better and we'll all benefit.
I would personally try this, if I didn't get any other feedback.
THX
-AEF
On Thu, 21 Nov 1996, Mitchell Leben wrote:
> I'd like to hear various solutions to setting up a backup mail server. I
> have sendmail on a 4.0 box, with about 1000 emails a day. The second
> computer will do nothing but serve as backup mail.
>
> The current mail server is POP only, ie. no telnet logins or shell users.
> So, my question:
>
> - What are some backup strategies to synchronize two mail servers?
>
> I have considered setting up a crontab on the main server to ftp the key
> files to the backup every 15 minutes (passwd, group, sendmail.c*,mail
> spool, databases, aliases, etc.) Then the backup machine would copy these
> files to the proper places.
>
> DNS of course has to be considered as well. I can setup another MX record
> with a lower priority. Ideally the switch would be hot and seamless.
>
> Thanks for any setup ideas. My goal here is to have uninterrupted email,
> even if the main machine goes down.
>
> ----------------------------
> Mitchell Leben
> mitch@smithphoto.com
> http://snappy.smithphoto.com/~mitch
> ----------------------------
>
>
> --
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