>1) Does anyone have a system setup and working like this? If so, some
>general configuration notes would be nice.
>2) If Box 1 goes down, what's the best way to switch to backup box 2 (MX
>records?)

MX records with short TTL on the MX host A records (1 hour) that would be 
changed in an emergency would only get the mail sent to another ip address.

At that ip address, if you wanted access to mailboxes there, you'd have to 
duplicate the Imail registry on that box.  Doing that is made more 
difficult if you have frequently changing mail domains and/or accounts.

>3) What about the mailboxes on box 1 if it crashes?  Are they gone?

yes.

>   4) Do I need to maintain duplicate user accounts on both boxes?

yes, if you want access to mailboxes during the period of unreachability of 
the main mailbox.

>5) If box 1 goes down for a bit... and I switch to box 2.... then get box 1
>back up and running.  Can I get email that is sitting on box 2 over to box
>1? Easily? :-)

not really, some mail will inevitably be left on the backup server, esp if 
you have webmail users who like to leave mail on the servers.  getting 
those mailboxes copied back to the primary server which now has old+new 
mail is not trivial

>I'm sure someone in the group has/is dealing with this and can provide some
>great insight to all of us!

it's a FAQ.  There a variety of solutions.

Len


http://MenAndMice.com/DNS-training
http://BIND8NT.MEIway.com : ISC BIND for NT4 & W2K
http://IMGate.MEIway.com  : Build free, hi-perf, anti-abuse mail gateways


Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html 
to be removed from this list.

An Archive of this list is available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/

Reply via email to