On Thu, Nov 21, 2019 at 01:04:45PM +0000, Gregory Heytings wrote:
>
> >
> > Sending systems will automatically back off and retry at intervals (I
> > have seen this happen when I have upgraded my home server in the past)
> > so will a secondary/backup MX actually help at all?
> >
>
> It's up to you to decide what your priorities are. It's true that sending
> systems automatically retry delivering emails, but this means at least (1)
> that you experience delivery delays when your main MX is down, (2) that if
> your main MX is down for a long period (e.g. you're on vacation and cannot
> reboot, your internet connection is physically down and needs to be
> repaired, ...), and (3) some sending systems (typically mailing lists)
> maintain a record of delivery failures and will stop trying to send emails
> for you when there are too many failures. In cases (2) and (3) you might
> lose emails.
>
Yes, you're right, I did get dropped off a couple of mailing lists the
last time I was off air for a long time.
Rebbooting isn't a problem, there is always someone who can restart
the system for me, though I suppose if there was a hardware fault I'd
be a bit stuck.
So what do others do?
Have an off-site secondary/backup MX and a means of getting mail
from that system. That's my issue with this approach, I mean I
could *read* the mail but it won't get delivered into my filter
system at home and thus to the right destination directories etc.
Have a local backup system to switch to when main system is down.
Probably a bit easier to manage and if it is synchronised with the
main system then filters etc. can still work.
Do what I did until recently and deliver all mail, unfiltered, to
an off-site system using my hosting service's mail forwarding.
I can at least ready all my E-Mail there. I actually turned this
off recently because I so rarely needed it, maybe I should turn it
back on.
Anything else?
Thanks for the feedback so far, all useful stuff.
--
Chris Green
