[421] in Info-AFS_Redistribution
Re: replicating mail queue volumes
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Gardiner Myers)
Thu Nov 14 19:14:35 1991
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1991 16:27:07 -0500 (EST)
From: John Gardiner Myers <jm36+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Info-AFS@transarc.com
In-Reply-To: <wd8hdvG0ts4jI4DUcI@alw.nih.gov>
Bob_Dew@alw.nih.gov writes:
> Is there a technical reason why the AMDS queueing area should be replicated?
You don't want your entire mail system to stop working because the
wrong server went down. You will notice that the actual mail queue
volumes are scattered across several file servers. If the path up to
them (/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/service/mailqs) were not replicated, this
scattering for reliablility would be in vain.
Also, when another cell running AMDS is attempting to deliver mail, it
attempts to see if the destination domain is also running AMDS. It
does this by checking the existence of /afs/domain/service/mailqs. If
it gets a temporary error when looking for that directory, it will
delay the mail for a few hours before giving up and assuming the
domain does not run AMDS.
Another result of this is that if you advertise an AFS cell, you
should ensure that the cell and the path through the service directory
are fairly reliably available, whether you run AMDS or not.
Otherwise, mail to your site from sites that run AMDS will be
unnecessarily delayed.
--
_.John G. Myers Internet: John.G.Myers@andrew.cmu.edu
(412) 268-2314 LoseNet: ...!seismo!ihnp4!wiscvm.wisc.edu!give!up
