[IMail Forum] Mirroring an iMail server

[Len Conrad]

> Hi there.. I didn't think that my post was going to cause these type of
discussion.

Don't let that discourage you from posting. Sandy's egregious, aggressive, flaming behavior in this thread and others is not the norm for this list, and hasn't been since the list was initiated years ago.

> I believe Sandy got my point right... and perhaps Len believed that I was
trying to explain a mirror operation when actually it was just a "standard
backup MX operation -spool and forward-"

Well, what you are doing is using two Imail servers in primary/secondary "near-mirror" setup.

> You are right.. that is not an option for mirroring. I was giving my advice
of a way to be prepared when his Imail server goes down without spending a
lot of money in a cluster configuration.... it is not mirroring.... I made
that cleared at the begining of my post.

Mirroring can include what you are doing, backing up one mailbox server to another mailbox server.

> Regarding len's questions:
I run Imail in the secundary server where I point MX20 to.

This is a key point.

From looking at a lot of ISP's primary and backup MX's, I know that valid mail (as well as significant quantities of spam) does get delivered to the backup MX even when the primary MX is available. This is no problem when the backup MX is relay-only function. However, if your backup MX is also a mailbox server where this backup MX mail will get delivered to local mailboxes on the backup MX, rather than relayed to the primary mailbox server. Since the users aren't reading their mail on the mirrored server, the mail to the backup MX is effectively lost, and permanently so when you mirror the primary mail server to the backup mail server. How do you handle that?

In order to keep the backup MX from functioning as mailbox server, do you export the primary Imail registry to the backup box, but don't restore it to the backup MX's registry until it must be promoted to primary mailbox server, so the backup Imail server remains are relay-only MX?

> I have schedule my primary Imail server to save the registry and Imail
folder every day via VP-LAN into another box for backup purposes.

oops, here it's not clear. "another box" is MX 20? or is it a third box (different from Imail-one/MX 10 and Imail-two/MX 20).

So, in fact, you do mirroring by periodic backup technique from your primary Imail server to a second IMail server/backup MX. This is much more than "standard backup MX operation -spool and forward-".

Len


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/