Michael Hornby wrote:
>
> I am running qmail on a server which will be going down shortly for
> upgrades. I have a unix machine running at my house (static IP address) that
> I would like to use as a "backup" server. I plan on changing the MX record
> for my domain to point to my home machine, and to have all the mail
> delivered there while the main server is down. Instead of having mail being
> sent to me bounce, it will go through via the backup server.
>
> My ultimate goal is to have my home server accept any mail that is being
> sent to any e-mail address being hosted on the main server, and to
> indefinitely try to forward it to the main server. This way, when the main
> server returns, it will receive all the mail it missed while it was down.
> All the e-mail will then continue to be stored on the main server, and users
> can login there to retrieve it.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas as to how I might implement this? Any help is
> greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
The best way to upgrade your mail server is to install a forwarding
sendmail on your firewall, then queue mail at the firewall until your
new server is complete. Set the bounce timeout on the firewall to
something like 5 days. I did this a week ago, and it took me about 30
hours for a large migration plus many mailing lists and domains... When
you are happy, open the floodgates... I had about 4000 messages queued.
Mike
