>What solution is available to allow an ISP to continue to allow SMTP
>service when the Entire Mail server goes down.
backup MX will allow incoming SMTP deliveries, but not backup
mailbox/POP3 services.
> We currently have a backup Store and send imail server to capture
> all incoming mail but our users could not send mail for almost a 14
> hour period.
14 hours?
>Are there any creative DNS solutions available?
DNS doesn't do backup mailbox servers. :)))
>Does Peering through Imail resolve this issue?
no, Imail peering only allows any one of up to 5 Imail servers to
split the mailbox storage among the 5 for a single domain, to receive
incoming mail for the peer group, and then relay within the peer
group to whereever the mailbox is. Mailbox storage is not
duplicated. If one peer server goes down, its mailboxes are
unavailable, just like a non-peered mailbox. A user must also know
which uniquely named peer server holds his mailbox for POP and Web
Messaging login and mailbox access.
> What about Len's IMGate? Does this accomplish this task?
It works as backup MX and SMTP relay, but not as backup mailbox
server. If the Imail user base/passwords were stored in an external
database, then IMGate could do SMTP AUTH so when the mailbox server
was down, users could still relay their outbound mail through the
IMGate relay hub. IMgate could get at the SQL database through
something like a UNIXODBC driver, just like Imail does it through
Win32 ODBC driver. This would remove the outbound user traffic from
Imail completely, in good times and bad.
>I hope I am making sense with my terminology.
better than many! :)))
You'll need some kind of external hot failover switch driving
mirrored mail servers. People have done that, I guess they'll chime in.
Len < 14 hours? >
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