On 8/9/2011 9:28 PM, Ben Kennedy wrote: > Bowie Bailey wrote at 9:47 AM (-0400) on 6/10/11: >> My solution to this problem is to take the secondary server offline. If >> the primary server goes down, the sending servers will queue the mail >> for you for a reasonable amount of time (generally at least 24 hours, >> although I think 3-5 days is most common). This should give you plenty >> of time to repair the primary server or activate the secondary as a >> temporary replacement. Since mail is not being delivered while the >> primary server is down in either case, does it really matter whose queue >> the mail sits in? > That's a good point. On reflection, this is probably the most sensible > solution. You've unearthed the nut of it in the final sentence above. > Frankly, aside from expediting the delivery of mail following a failure of > the primary, I can't think of a good reason why I've been adamant about > accepting mail on two machines. > >> You can leave the secondary MX record in place even if the server is >> offline. This will not have any negative side effects and may even help >> to reduce spam since spammers frequently try the lower-priority server >> first. > In that case, I think what I may do is leave my configuration as it is, but > simply shut down courier on the secondary machine. In a pinch I can simply > start up courier again to begin queueing mail, or switch the secondary over > to primary mode. > > This solution is so simple and obvious, I'm a bit flummoxed why it has taken > me so long (several years) to come to this conclusion. Obviously, at various > points in time, I've seen merit in having more than one machine online and > capable of receiving mail, but I seem to have now forgotten what I thought > they were.
Just be careful with the second server. If there is something responding to port 25, it may cause problems. Make sure that a connection to that port simply fails and is not rejected in some manner. However, on second thought, since this is a secondary MX record, it should not be a major issue. Legitimate servers should try the primary first, so as long as the primary is running, the second server should see very few non-spam connection attempts. -- Bowie ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get a FREE DOWNLOAD! and learn more about uberSVN rich system, user administration capabilities and model configuration. Take the hassle out of deploying and managing Subversion and the tools developers use with it. http://p.sf.net/sfu/wandisco-dev2dev _______________________________________________ courier-users mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/courier-users
