Peering is not failover. Peering allows you to have a portion of your total user base on another server. For example, you have 500 total users. You have been getting by with some slower hardware but want to upgrade. What you can do is move a portion of your user base on your domain (@xyz.com) to another server while leaving the other part intact. You get to 'migrate' on any particular order (say for training or manpower purposes). The net result is that is either machine goes down, 100% of inbound mails remains, but only the portion of users that have their home mailbox on the live server have 100% access.
What you want is an active / active cluster. Imail itself does not natively support clustering this way. I _could_ however see some kind of work-around if you had the data on a shared disk subsystem (either scsi or san) where the imail files are available to 'both servers' at the same time. If the user info was also shared (in NT user db like AD, or SQL, etc, so pwd changes did not have to be synchronized in the registry), it is conceivable that you could get your desired result. Once again, I have no direct experience with 'clustering' an application that is not 'cluster aware' so you are out there a bit. That said, depending on what downtime you can survive, say 1 minute or so, I think an MS cluster in active / standby would work just peachy. Basically you have the HDDs shared the same way but on server is not 'hot' on the network. It looks like (for all practical purposes) the other server. They use a dedicated cable between the two to keep a heartbeat alive to check on each other. When box2 cannot see box1, it 'becomes' box1 to the network. As long as your data is not registry dependent, it would just come up and work. ************* Dave Heritage Dave at onx dot cc ************* -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Greg Foulks Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 10:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] Backup mail server when the primary is down Correct I'm looking for a solution that will still provide SMTP and POP to my users when the primary box is offline for maintenance or whatever. Both boxes are domain controllers so they both have the complete Domain user list for authentication. You'll see that I've posted another questions wrt Peering which I believe is what I need to do to make this work? Greg Dave Heritage wrote: >The way I understand your 'problem' is that you are really looking for >a failover solution, not a mail-bagging solution. I really just want >to clarify what you are asking for so forgive me if I seem off-center. > >Are you just wanting to 'not lose inbound mail' when box1 dies? > >Or > >Are you wanting a user to be able to 'log-in' and both send and receive >under their account credentials from box2 when box1 fails for some >reason (maintenance, whatever)? > >If you are looking simply to continue to receive inbound mail, that is >achieved by secondary mx's and gateway / forwarding, whatever. > >The other solution is a LOT more complex and honestly I would love to >play with how to achieve it, but simply put, you had to have an active >/ active type cluster of some sort. Somehow you would have to have the >imail info. Duplicated / shared whatever under two servers' watchful >eyes. Not easily accomplished imho, but possible maybe. Definitely >not for the faint of heart. > > >************* >Dave Heritage >Dave at onx dot cc >************* >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Doug Mauer >Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 8:17 PM >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Backup mail server when the primary is down > >Bob, > >I don't thing this is correct, if your secondary mx record box is >outside the firewall and your primary doesn't answer mail requests, the >sending smtp server will know it as nothing will answer the request. >That is unless your firewall is responding to the smtp request which it >probably isn't. Most firewalls merely pass thru the request. > >You also might want to consider a better firewall which can port map >more than one device to the same port. cisco 501 may work for you >depending on how many folks you have behind it,,, they are now around >$400. > >doug > > > >>-----Original Message----- >>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Bob >>Schmalzigan >>Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 4:03 PM >>To: Imail Forum >>Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] Backup mail server when the primary is down >> >> >>Greg, >>I have been setting up the very same situation, however my mail server >> >> > > > >>is located behind a firewall which forwards the mail to imailserver. >>The "backup" server is a linux sendmail box located in front of the >>firewall because unfortunately my firewall can forward mail to only >>one server at a time. I have configured the backup as a 20 mx record >>and set up an additional service or account in the mail clients to >>retrieve mail from it if the primary is down. This does not work >>however because even though imailserver is down the proxy server is >>where mx 10 is pointed at all times and the outside world thinks the >>proxy server is the mail server so as a result I can never get any >>mail to the backup unless the firewall is down also. So I am looking >>for an alternate solution as well. >> >> >>Bob >>On Mon, 2004-06-21 at 15:08, Greg Foulks wrote: >> >> >>>I've been reading in the mail about how to setup a secondary >>> >>> >>mail server >> >> >>>for when the primary is down. I understand what its saying but was >>>just wondering something. The book says to setup the secondary as a >>>gateway and have it store and forward messages for when the primary >>>is down. Is it not possible to setup the secondary so that it then >>>becomes the primary when the primary machine is down? I guess what >>>I'm trying to do is to still allow messages to be sent and received >>>when the primary server is down for reboots or maintenance without >>>having to make any changes on the client side (transparent). >>> >>>Thanks, >>>Greg >>> >>> >>>To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html >>>List Archive: >>> >>> >http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > > >>Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ >> >> >> > > >To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html >List Archive: >http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ >Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > > >To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html >List Archive: >http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ >Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > > > >To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html >List Archive: >http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ >Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > >. > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
