Re: Backup-mx

[Henning Brauer]

On Sun, Jul 22, 2001 at 10:49:35PM +0200, Lukas Beeler wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 22, 2001 at 10:44:35PM +0200, Tue N?rgaard wrote:
> > HI!
> > > It looks like the primary server is configured wrong and / or the dns
> > records are
> > > configured wrong.. can you tell me the configuration of your primary
> > server ?
> > > narnias.dk. 43200   IN  MX  50 mail.n-consult.dk.
> > > narnias.dk. 43200   IN  MX  10 mail.narnias.dk.
> > > as it looks like, mail.n-consult.dk has the higher priority.. iam not
> > really
> > > sure about mx records, iam not a expert in dns questions..
> > > probably you should change the value, that the primary has the higher
> > number
> > > and, of course try to check about that the primary really accepts mail for
> > > narnias.dk

NO! The primary has the _LOWER_ number.

> > The mail should first go to mail.narnias.dk.  But that server is down right
> > now. So then my mailserver mail.n-consult.dk should recieve them and put
> > them into the queue, and send them to mail.narnias.dk when it´s avalilable
> > again.
> hmm.. 
> okay
> i think you should set up an smtproute
> narnias.dk:mail.narnias.dk
> so that qmail doesnt look at the mx records it wants to send the mail to
> but this solution will only work if the server isnt down longer than 10 days..

No, just get your DNS right.

-- 
* Henning Brauer, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.bsws.de *
* Roedingsmarkt 14, 20459 Hamburg, Germany   *
Unix is very simple, but it takes a genius to understand the simplicity.
(Dennis Ritchie)

Re: Backup-mx

[Ahmad Ridha]

Lukas Beeler writes: 

> It looks like the primary server is configured wrong and / or the dns records are 
> configured wrong.. can you tell me the configuration of your primary server ?
> narnias.dk. 43200   IN  MX  50 mail.n-consult.dk.
> narnias.dk. 43200   IN  MX  10 mail.narnias.dk.
> as it looks like, mail.n-consult.dk has the higher priority.. iam not really
> sure about mx records, iam not a expert in dns questions..
> probably you should change the value, that the primary has the higher number
> and, of course try to check about that the primary really accepts mail for
> narnias.dk 
> 

CMIIW, but primary mx has to has lower number which means higher priority. 
To configure a backup-mx, you only need to put narnias.dk in rcpthosts of 
the backup-mx server so that it will accept mails for narnias.dk when the 
primary mx is down but it won't treat them as local mail. That way the 
backup-mx will keep on trying to send those mail to the primary mx. 

Regards, 

Ahmad Ridha 

Re: Backup-mx

[Lukas Beeler]

On Sun, Jul 22, 2001 at 10:44:35PM +0200, Tue N?rgaard wrote:
> HI!
> > It looks like the primary server is configured wrong and / or the dns
> records are
> > configured wrong.. can you tell me the configuration of your primary
> server ?
> > narnias.dk. 43200   IN  MX  50 mail.n-consult.dk.
> > narnias.dk. 43200   IN  MX  10 mail.narnias.dk.
> > as it looks like, mail.n-consult.dk has the higher priority.. iam not
> really
> > sure about mx records, iam not a expert in dns questions..
> > probably you should change the value, that the primary has the higher
> number
> > and, of course try to check about that the primary really accepts mail for
> > narnias.dk
> 
> The mail should first go to mail.narnias.dk.  But that server is down right
> now. So then my mailserver mail.n-consult.dk should recieve them and put
> them into the queue, and send them to mail.narnias.dk when it´s avalilable
> again.
hmm.. 
okay
i think you should set up an smtproute
narnias.dk:mail.narnias.dk
so that qmail doesnt look at the mx records it wants to send the mail to
but this solution will only work if the server isnt down longer than 10 days..

> 
> Regarding mx records: It´s is the mx record with the lowest number that
> indicates which server to sent to first. And that is correct. My server
> mail.n-consult.dk is only suppose to get and hold the messages to the other
> server gets up again. Therefore it has a mx record with a higher number.
thanks for your informations !

> 
> Best regards
> 
> Tue Noergaard
> 
> 
> 

-- 
--/-/-- Lukas Beeler  [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---\-\--
  \ \  My HomePage: http://www.projectdream.org>  / /

Re: Backup-mx

[Lukas Beeler]

It looks like the primary server is configured wrong and / or the dns records are 
configured wrong.. can you tell me the configuration of your primary server ?
narnias.dk. 43200   IN  MX  50 mail.n-consult.dk.
narnias.dk. 43200   IN  MX  10 mail.narnias.dk.
as it looks like, mail.n-consult.dk has the higher priority.. iam not really
sure about mx records, iam not a expert in dns questions..
probably you should change the value, that the primary has the higher number
and, of course try to check about that the primary really accepts mail for
narnias.dk


On Sun, Jul 22, 2001 at 10:32:59PM +0200, Tue N?rgaard wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I´m trying to get my mail server act as a backup-mx for at domain called
> narnias.dk.
> 
> I have put narnias.dk into the rcpthosts file and restarted qmail.
> 
> My problem is that my server is the server mx with the highest number, so my
> server is suppose to put the messages into queue, and send them to the
> primary mx when it´s availible again.
> The mail gets into the queue..
> This is what the mail log says:
> 
> "@40003b5b0f1e31a2331c info msg 400814: bytes 595 from
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> qp 16480 uid 0
> @40003b5b0f1e31c7a50c starting delivery 1: msg 400814 to remote
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> @40003b5b0f1e31c7bc7c status: local 0/10 remote 1/20
> @40003b5b0f77386a2574 new msg 400830
> @40003b5b0f7738fefb04 info msg 400830: bytes 819 from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> qp 16488 uid 0
> @40003b5b0f773afa4a1c starting delivery 2: msg 400830 to remote
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> @40003b5b0f773afa59bc status: local 0/10 remote 2/20
> @40003b5b0f773afa6574 delivery 1: success:
> 62.243.13.155_accepted_message./Remote_host_said:_250_ok_995823469_qp_16488/
> @40003b5b0f773afa7514 status: local 0/10 remote 1/20
> @40003b5b0f773afa80cc end msg 400814
> "
> 
> But I get the following mail back:
> 
> "Hi. This is the qmail-send program at shark.n-consult.dk.
> I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
> This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
> 
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> 62.243.13.155 failed after I sent the message.
> Remote host said: 554 too many hops, this message is looping (#5.4.6)
> 
> --- Below this line is a copy of the message.
> 
> Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Received: (qmail 16966 invoked by uid 0); 22 Jul 2001 18:00:41 -
> Received: from cpe.atm0-0-0-108101.abnxx1.customer.tele.dk (HELO
> shark.n-consult.dk) (62.243.13.155)
>   by 172.16.1.2 with SMTP; 22 Jul 2001 18:00:41 -
> "
> 
> The mail is much longer but I have just put the some of it. The rest of the
> mail is the same.
> 
> I´m running qmail 1.03, and vpopmail. Everything else is working fine
> 
> A short overlook of my setup:
> 
> My router IP-address on the WAN side: 62.243.13.155, and it is using NAT to
> 192.168.1.2.  Then my firewall is having 192.168.1.2 on the "WAN" side, and
> 172.16.1.1 on the LAN side (using masqurade). . My server´s IP-address is
> 172.16.1.2
> 
> What am I doing wrong?
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Tue Noergaard
> 

-- 
--/-/-- Lukas Beeler  [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---\-\--
  \ \  My HomePage: http://www.projectdream.org>  / /

Re: backup mail server help

[Peter van Dijk]

On Thu, Jun 14, 2001 at 12:42:28PM -0700, Adam Jacob wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 13, 2001 at 06:03:41AM -0600, Jeff Palmer wrote:
> > And if your NFS server goes down,  both servers are useless.  In which 
> > case,  what was the point of having a backup server again?
> 
> Which is why you deploy this with something like a NetApp filer, that lets you
> deliver to NFS, and have multiple external pop3 servers as well. (And have two
> NetApp's mirroring your data at the same time)

Or just being clustered on the same set of shelves which use RAID4
themselves, so one of each kind of part can go down :)

Greetz, Peter
-- 
Against Free Sex!   http://www.dataloss.nl/Megahard_en.html

Re: backup mail server help

[Adam Jacob]

On Wed, Jun 13, 2001 at 06:03:41AM -0600, Jeff Palmer wrote:
> And if your NFS server goes down,  both servers are useless.  In which 
> case,  what was the point of having a backup server again?

Which is why you deploy this with something like a NetApp filer, that lets you
deliver to NFS, and have multiple external pop3 servers as well. (And have two
NetApp's mirroring your data at the same time)

Adam

-- 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] - (http://sysadminsith.org)
Evil Lord of the Sysadmin Sith Darth Rmdashrf

Re: backup mail server help

[Mike Cathey]

Sorry, I forgot to include the list in the to...
Any comments would be greatly appreciated, esp. in regard to nfs locking...


Jeff,

You make a very valid point, however this can be overcome in many ways.
   I am currently researching this for my employer.  Here's a general
overview of how I'm planning on designing our network/servers.

--- <- external net
|   |
   director1director2
|   |
--- <- internal net
  | | |
 qmail1qmail2qmail3
  | | |
   \___ |  __/
   \|/
|
--- <- gigabit 'nfs' net with backup 100Mb net
 ||
   NFS1 NFS2


I'm looking at using LVS (Linux Virtual Server) to handle the load
balancing/clustering.  We'll be using the cluster for www/pop3/dns/etc
as well.  LVS will allow us to add machines dynamically.

We'll be using qmail/ldap/ldap-control and 2 (or more) LDAP servers for
qmail configuration.  I've also considered having the cluster servers
boot off of CD and use a single disk for /tmp and the queue.

I haven't fully researched the NFS servers yet, but here is my idea.
The developer that made ReiserFS also wrote/is writing DRBD, which is
capable of doing network mirroring.  I am planning to use 2 e450s that I
have with Samba (for Win servers), NFS (mirrored with DRBD), and
heartbeat software to control the failover between the 2 servers.

There are 2 obvious alternatives to the NFS solution that I mentioned
though.  NetAPP makes an appliance (Filer) that can handle >6TB (RAID5)
storage which provides for (according to some friends of mine that use
them in a 75+ e6000/45+ win2k env) 5 9s of reliability.  I don't have
prices, but I've heard that one Filer can run >$80k.  The other option
is a software solution (clustering/replication/failover) from Veritas,
which comes highly recommended.

DISCLAIMER:  I don't work for any of the above mentioned companies.

Would anyone be interested in helping me develop a FAQ for this?

Cheers,

Mike

Jeff Palmer wrote:

 > And if your NFS server goes down,  both servers are useless.  In which
 > case,  what was the point of having a backup server again?
 >
 > Jeff Palmer
 > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 >
 > At 09:57 AM 6/13/01 +0300, you wrote:
 >
 >> Alternatively you can run two SMTP servers and one POP server. Do 
NAT for
 >> the two and export the partition with Maildirs(at the pop server) to the
 >> SMTP servers through NFS. The two servers seem to be one to the outside
 >> world. NFS can be insecure though.
 >>
 >> Joe.
 >> - Original Message -
 >> From: "Henning Brauer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
 >> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
 >> Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2001 4:15 AM
 >> Subject: Re: backup mail server help
 >>
 >>
 >> > On Fri, Jun 08, 2001 at 04:33:49PM -0700, Hank Wethington wrote:
 >> > > What I'd like to accomplish is if Server A is unavailable, then mail
 >> goes to
 >> > > server B. Once A is back up, server B sends the mail back to
 >> server A.
 >> Does
 >> >
 >> > On server B, add all domains in question to rcpthosts, but NOT to
 >> local
 >> or
 >> virtualdomains. That's it ;-))
 >> >
 >> > --
 >> > * Henning Brauer, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.bsws.de *
 >> > * Roedingsmarkt 14, 20459 Hamburg, Germany   *
 >> > Unix is very simple, but it takes a genius to understand the
 >> simplicity.
 >> > (Dennis Ritchie)
 >> >

Re: backup mail server help

[Jeff Palmer]

And if your NFS server goes down,  both servers are useless.  In which 
case,  what was the point of having a backup server again?

Jeff Palmer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

At 09:57 AM 6/13/01 +0300, you wrote:
>Alternatively you can run two SMTP servers and one POP server. Do NAT for
>the two and export the partition with Maildirs(at the pop server) to the
>SMTP servers through NFS. The two servers seem to be one to the outside
>world. NFS can be insecure though.
>
>Joe.
>- Original Message -
>From: "Henning Brauer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2001 4:15 AM
>Subject: Re: backup mail server help
>
>
> > On Fri, Jun 08, 2001 at 04:33:49PM -0700, Hank Wethington wrote:
> > > What I'd like to accomplish is if Server A is unavailable, then mail
>goes to
> > > server B. Once A is back up, server B sends the mail back to server A.
>Does
> >
> > On server B, add all domains in question to rcpthosts, but NOT to locals
>or
> > virtualdomains. That's it ;-))
> >
> > --
> > * Henning Brauer, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.bsws.de *
> > * Roedingsmarkt 14, 20459 Hamburg, Germany   *
> > Unix is very simple, but it takes a genius to understand the simplicity.
> > (Dennis Ritchie)
> >

Re: backup mail server help

[Joe]

Alternatively you can run two SMTP servers and one POP server. Do NAT for
the two and export the partition with Maildirs(at the pop server) to the
SMTP servers through NFS. The two servers seem to be one to the outside
world. NFS can be insecure though.

Joe.
- Original Message -
From: "Henning Brauer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2001 4:15 AM
Subject: Re: backup mail server help


> On Fri, Jun 08, 2001 at 04:33:49PM -0700, Hank Wethington wrote:
> > What I'd like to accomplish is if Server A is unavailable, then mail
goes to
> > server B. Once A is back up, server B sends the mail back to server A.
Does
>
> On server B, add all domains in question to rcpthosts, but NOT to locals
or
> virtualdomains. That's it ;-))
>
> --
> * Henning Brauer, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.bsws.de *
> * Roedingsmarkt 14, 20459 Hamburg, Germany   *
> Unix is very simple, but it takes a genius to understand the simplicity.
> (Dennis Ritchie)
>

Re: backup mail server help

[Charles Cazabon]

Hank Wethington <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> What I'd like to accomplish is if Server A is unavailable, then mail goes to
> server B. Once A is back up, server B sends the mail back to server A.

Okay.

> Does this make sense?

Eminent sense.

> I know about the MX records in DNS, but how do I make qmail accept the
> messages but not deliver them and eventually send them back to the higher
> priority server.

If a domain is in neither locals nor virtualdomains, qmail won't try to
deliver it on the local box.  To get qmail to accept mail for that domain via
SMTP, put the domain name in rcpthosts.

Charles
-- 
---
Charles Cazabon<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
GPL'ed software available at:  http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/
Any opinions expressed are just that -- my opinions.
---

RE: backup mail server help

[Willy De la Court]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

Hank,

on the backup just put the domains in rcpthosts file NOT in locals and NOT in 
virtualdomains
this will effectively configure the backup mail server to accept mail and try to 
deliver it to the primary.
Make sure your dns records are correct.

you don't need qmail-pop3d on the secondary because it won't store mail you only need 
the qmail process 
and the qmail-smtpd process

Thats all it's that simple
Who ever said that configuring qmail was difficult?

Willy De la Court
Quint NS NV

On Saturday, June 09, 2001 01:34, Hank Wethington [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] wrote:
> 
> I think my mind is unstable from trying to figure this out on my own. I've
> got a main mail server (FreeBSD 4.3/qmail 1.03/vpop/sweb/imap/blah blah
> blah) and a second on a separate network (RH Linux 6.2/qmail
> 1.03/qmail-pop3d).
> 
> What I'd like to accomplish is if Server A is unavailable, then mail goes to
> server B. Once A is back up, server B sends the mail back to server A. Does
> this make sense? I know about the MX records in DNS, but how do I make qmail
> accept the messages but not deliver them and eventually send them back to
> the higher priority server. Man I'm confused. Is this even possible? If its
> not why have different MX hosts? If it is, is my brain just too small to
> absorb the needed info. Will George Lucas make a decent Star Wars 2 or are
> we in for another bad story line?
> 
> Ok.. let me put back on my strait jacket.
> 
> Hank Wethington
> Information Logistics
> 
> 
> www.GoInfoLogistics.com
> mailto:info.at.GoInfoLogistics.com
> 
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Re: backup mail server help

[Henning Brauer]

On Fri, Jun 08, 2001 at 04:33:49PM -0700, Hank Wethington wrote:
> What I'd like to accomplish is if Server A is unavailable, then mail goes to
> server B. Once A is back up, server B sends the mail back to server A. Does

On server B, add all domains in question to rcpthosts, but NOT to locals or
virtualdomains. That's it ;-))

-- 
* Henning Brauer, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.bsws.de *
* Roedingsmarkt 14, 20459 Hamburg, Germany   *
Unix is very simple, but it takes a genius to understand the simplicity.
(Dennis Ritchie)

Re: backup server

[Greg White]

On Thu, Jun 07, 2001 at 11:33:02AM +1000, David Ryan wrote:
> G'day all,
>   I have looked through the archives for info about setting up a
> secondary mail server. I have followed the steps in the replies I found
> but I am confused about one point. I have tcpserver running on the
> secondary and it accepts mail coming into it. I can see the message in
> the queue. What I don't get is how it sends that message to the primary
> server once the primary comes back up?
> 
> I figure it has to be qmail-send but am not sure how/where to start this
> on the secondary. What have I missed?
> 

You've missed the fact that if the primary has a better MX for the same
domain name, the secondary will just send it -- providing that the
domain name in question is not in locals or virtualdomains on the
secondary. It's really that simple. That's what MX 'distance' is for.

Of course, this also presumes that qmail-send is actually running. I
don't think that's what you were asking?

-- 
Greg White

Re: Backup mail server.

[Greg White]

On Wed, May 30, 2001 at 11:21:57AM +1000, Grant wrote:
> I accidentally deleted an email and couldn't find it on the qmail
> archives. The question is:
> 
> What do I need to do for a backup mx record to store emails until the
> first mx comes back. I put the domain in rcpthosts, but not in
> locals, as I want it to store them until the first mx comes back. Was
> there anything else I needed to do, because it is bouncing the
> emails at the moment, giving a looping error? Sorry for the broad
> question, but hopefully the person who answered this for me last time will
> know.
> 

Requirements for a proper secondary MX:

1. a primary MX, with a better preference (lower #)
2. a secondary MX, with a worse preference (higher #)
3. domain name in rcpthosts but not locals on the secondary.

That's literally it. This should not cause any 'loop' issues -- can you
please post the bounce, and the output of qmail-showctl from both
servers, plus the results of either 'dig mx yourdomain.example' or
'dnsmx yourdomain.example', where yourdomain.example is the _real name_
of the domain in question.
-- 
Greg White

Re: Backup

[Dave Sill]

>From http://cr.yp.to/qmail/faq/reliability.html#backups:

>How do I back up and restore the queue disk? 
>
>Answer: You can't. 
>
>One difficulty is that you can't get a consistent snapshot of the
>queue while qmail-send is running.

Stop qmail first. And kick off all the users to prevent new messages
from being added to the queue.

>Another difficulty is that messages in the queue must have filenames
>that match their inode numbers.

Run queue-fix after restoring.

>However, the big problem is that backups---even hourly backups!---are
>far too unreliable for mail. If your disk dies, there will be very
>little overlap between the messages saved in the last backup and the
>messages that were lost.

Restoring an old queue will probably result in redelivering some
messages, but it will recover long-undeliverable messages. To me, a
few duplicates are worth it to recover lost messages.

>There are several ways to add real reliability to a mail server.
>Battery backups will keep your server alive, letting you park the
>disk to avoid a head crash, when the power goes out. Solid-state
>disks have their own battery backups. RAID boxes let you replace dead
>disks without losing any data.

Yes, UPS's and disks are cheap.

-Dave

Re: Backup

[David Talkington]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-

Chorvat, Vladimir wrote:

> Have anyone some solution for backup qmail files (opened files) without
>stopping services?

Do you mean:

- - back up qmail configuration files?  They're not being written during
operation, so that's perfectly safe.

- - back up target mailboxes?  chmod +t the user directory to
temporarily defer deliveries.

- - back up the queue?  As Mr. Pennace points out, you can't.

Hope this helps. -d

- -- 
David Talkington
http://www.spotnet.org

PGP key: http://www.prairienet.org/~dtalk/dt000823.asc



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Re: Backup

[Alex Pennace]

On Sun, Apr 22, 2001 at 08:40:49PM +0200, Chorvat, Vladimir wrote:
> Have anyone some solution for backup qmail files (opened files) without
> stoping services?

http://cr.yp.to/qmail/faq/reliability.html#backups

Re: Backup Servers.

[Sean Chittenden]

You can change the DNS MX preference on .11 so that it's
higher than .10, or you can run them both as primary MX's (same
value), and replicate configuration data using rsync over ssh (with
keys for automatic login).

> * Alan Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [20010403 21:44]:
> > I have 2 qmail servers.
> > 
> > One sitting on .10 and the other on .11
> > 
> > Both are diffrent machines.
> > 
> > Whats the best way to make .11 a backup server? Would I have to add the
> > username's/passwords to both servers or what?
> 
> I assume you mean that 11 should take care of email if 10 goes down and
> forward it to 10 when it comes up again.
> Just make sure that both boxes are mx's for your domains and add your domains
> to 11's rcpthosts.

-- 
Sean Chittenden

 PGP signature

Re: Backup Servers.

[Kirill Miazine]

* Alan Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [20010403 21:44]:
> I have 2 qmail servers.
> 
> One sitting on .10 and the other on .11
> 
> Both are diffrent machines.
> 
> Whats the best way to make .11 a backup server? Would I have to add the
> username's/passwords to both servers or what?

I assume you mean that 11 should take care of email if 10 goes down and
forward it to 10 when it comes up again.
Just make sure that both boxes are mx's for your domains and add your domains
to 11's rcpthosts.

Hope that helped

> 
> Regards
> 
-- 
Kirill

Re: Backup mail server

[Charles Cazabon]

Ryan Pape <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> I'm assuming the best way to implement a backup mail server that will queue
> mail in the event of a problem with the best MX would be to set the backup
> server as 2nd MX (obviously), and then add all the appropriate domains to
> rcpthosts.
> 
> Will that cause mail to be cached automatically, or is it necessary to add
> them to smtproutes additionally?

Nope, just rcpthosts.  The second machine will forward them on to the
best-preference MX automatically when it's reachable.

Charles
-- 
---
Charles Cazabon<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
GPL'ed software available at:  http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/
Any opinions expressed are just that -- my opinions.
---

Re: "Backup" Qmail Server

[Mark Delany]

On Fri, Jan 05, 2001 at 04:34:40PM -0600, David L. Nicol wrote:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > 
> > On Wed, 27 Dec 2000, Michael Hornby wrote:
> > 
> > > 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.
> 
> > the only extra thing you have to do is make sure example.com is in
> > rcpthosts on backup.example.net and also does not appear in locals or
> > virtualdomains on that machine. (if it does then you have to do htings
> > slightly differently)
> > 
> > RjL
> 
> 
> There's also rigging something to kill -ALRM the home server when the
> main server wakes up, if it has been down a while; as long as that won't

That's entirely optional of course.

> smother it, setting concurrencyremote on home low should help.

And indeed not doing the -ALRM reduces this risk.

Since qmail always tries one last time before bouncing you know that
evrything already in the home queue will be attempted one more time so
unless there is some urgency, I'd skip the -ALRM altogether and let
the mails come across in the normal course of qmail processing.


Regards.

Re: "Backup" Qmail Server

[David L. Nicol]

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 27 Dec 2000, Michael Hornby wrote:
> 
> > 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.

> the only extra thing you have to do is make sure example.com is in
> rcpthosts on backup.example.net and also does not appear in locals or
> virtualdomains on that machine. (if it does then you have to do htings
> slightly differently)
> 
> RjL


There's also rigging something to kill -ALRM the home server when the
main server wakes up, if it has been down a while; as long as that won't
smother it, setting concurrencyremote on home low should help.


-- 
   David Nicol 816.235.1187 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 "the toad doesn't know..."

Re: "Backup" Qmail Server

[richard]

On Wed, 27 Dec 2000, Michael Hornby wrote:

> 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.


example.com  IN MX 10  main.example.com.; main machine
 IN MX 20  backup.example.net.  ; home machine

if main.example.com is unreachable for any reason then anyone sending mail
to @example.com will send it to backup.example.net instead.

backup.example.net won't try to forward mail to itself, it'll just kep
trying main.example.com until it suceeds, or the timeouts expire (see
qmail-control for details of the files which control this)

the only extra thing you have to do is make sure example.com is in
rcpthosts on backup.example.net and also does not appear in locals or
virtualdomains on that machine. (if it does then you have to do htings
slightly differently)

RjL
==
You know that. I know that. But when  ||  Austin, Texas
you talk to a monkey you have to  ||  Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
grunt and wave your arms  -ck ||

Re: "Backup" Qmail Server

[Henning Brauer]

Am Donnerstag, 28. Dezember 2000 00:40 schrieb Dennis:

[qmail + courier-imap]

> thats a good idea for pop servers but not for imap.

can't see you problem.

-- 

Henning Brauer |  BS Web Services
Hostmaster BSWS|  Roedingsmarkt 14
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |  20459 Hamburg
www.bsws.de|  Germany

RE: "Backup" Qmail Server

[Dennis]

thats a good idea for pop servers but not for imap.


> -Original Message-
> From: Henning Brauer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Thursday, 28 December 2000 10:44 AM
> To: Mike Jackson; Michael Hornby
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: "Backup" Qmail Server
> 
> 
> Am Donnerstag, 28. Dezember 2000 00:28 schrieb Mike Jackson:
> > 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, 
> 
> 
> 
> The easiest way is to add another mx record with higher 
> precedence to your 
> domain pointing to your home machine and install qmail there, set 
> ~/control/me and just copy over ~/control/rcpthosts from your original 
> server. Thats all. You don't need to change this setup when 
> you're finished, 
> your home qmail will get all mail as loang as your primary server 
> is down and 
> send it to your primary when it becomes availabel again.
> The important thing here is that your domains are NOT in locals or 
> virtualdomains.
> 
> > 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
> 
> -- 
> 
> Henning Brauer |  BS Web Services
> Hostmaster BSWS|  Roedingsmarkt 14
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] |  20459 Hamburg
> www.bsws.de|  Germany

Re: "Backup" Qmail Server

[Henning Brauer]

Am Donnerstag, 28. Dezember 2000 00:28 schrieb Mike Jackson:
> 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, 



The easiest way is to add another mx record with higher precedence to your 
domain pointing to your home machine and install qmail there, set 
~/control/me and just copy over ~/control/rcpthosts from your original 
server. Thats all. You don't need to change this setup when you're finished, 
your home qmail will get all mail as loang as your primary server is down and 
send it to your primary when it becomes availabel again.
The important thing here is that your domains are NOT in locals or 
virtualdomains.

> 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

-- 

Henning Brauer |  BS Web Services
Hostmaster BSWS|  Roedingsmarkt 14
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |  20459 Hamburg
www.bsws.de|  Germany

Re: "Backup" Qmail Server

[Mike Jackson]

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

Re: Backup Advice Need !!!

[Dave Sill]

"Mark Lo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>I would like to know what do i have to backup for my mail server ??

Copy all of the file systems to another medium using, e.g., dump or
tar.

In the event of a restoration, you'll want to either empty the queue
(thus "losing" all undelivered, queued messages) or run one of the
queue fixers available through www.qmail.org to rename the queue files 
by their new inode numbers.

-Dave

Re: backup server for spooling

[Ronny Haryanto]

On 21-Aug-2000, Eric Peters wrote:
> I'm wondering howto setup a MX 20 server that will be a backup and spool
> email when the mx 10 server is down and when the mx 10 server goes backup
> then to transfer the spool of sorts to the mx 10 server

Put the domain(s) in the rcpthosts (or morercpthosts) of the MX 20
machine, but not in locals or virtualdomains. Simple as that.
It's like saying: accept for that domain but do not deliver it
locally.

HTH,

Ronny

Re: backup server for spooling

[James Raftery]

On Mon, Aug 21, 2000 at 06:37:24AM -0700, Eric Peters wrote:
> I'm wondering howto setup a MX 20 server that will be a backup and spool
> email when the mx 10 server is down and when the mx 10 server goes backup
> then to transfer the spool of sorts to the mx 10 server

Hi Eric,

http://www.ornl.gov/its/archives/mailing-lists/qmail/2000/08/msg00173.html

Regards,

james
-- 
James Raftery (JBR54)  -  Programmer Hostmaster  -  IE TLD Hostmaster
   IE Domain Registry  -  www.domainregistry.ie  -  (+353 1) 706 2375
  "Managing 4000 customer domains with BIND has been a lot like
   herding cats." - Mike Batchelor, on [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: backup of server is timing out

[Albert Hopkins]

Sorry, wrong mailing list ;-).  I haven't had my coffee yet.

-- 
 Albert Hopkins
 Sr. Systems Specialist
  Dynacare Laboratories 
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

One is not idle because one is absorbed. There is both visible and invisible 
labor. To contemplate is to toil. To think is to do. 
-Victor Hugo 

Re: Backup logs

[Paul Aviles]

Brian, I forsee a couple of issues with this approach.

If John Doe (the user that will contain all messages incomming and outgoing)
receives a message, he will get a second copy.
If John Doe sends mail, he will get also a copy.
If you have aliases associated with the domain like [EMAIL PROTECTED] he will
also get a copy.

I like your idea of kinda having a validation rule, but I have no clue on
how to do it. Any pointers?  Also, this does impose an extra load on the
server, but I guess there is no way to change that right?

thanks
-pa

- Original Message -
From: Brian Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Paul Aviles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: Backup logs


> > Paul Aviles wrote:
> > I know how to create backups for all incoming and outgoing messages by
> > modifying the extra.h file, but it is possible to target only certain
> > accounts to do the backup on?  This box has multiple virtual domains
> > and one of them wants to track incoming and outgoing only for certain
> > accounts. Using the extra.h copies everything for all virtual domains.
> > Is this possible with qmail?
>
> make a .qmail file for the user the logs go to that calls a script that
> looks at the to and from names in the e-mail and if it matches one of
> the addresses you want to log have it write it to a file, otherwise have
> it discard the message..
>

Re: Backup logs

[clemensF]

> Paul Aviles:

> I know how to create backups for all incoming and outgoing messages
> by modifying the extra.h file, but it is possible to target only
> certain accounts to do the backup on?  This box has multiple virtual
> domains and one of them wants to track incoming and outgoing only for
> certain accounts. Using the extra.h copies everything for all virtual
> domains. Is this possible with qmail?

you might consider using sgrep (structured text grep) *afterwards*, i.e.
logg everything and choose later.

-- 
clemens

Re: Backup logs

[J. I. Sendoro]

Hi 


Do not think i'm intervene you to get your answer, but can you please give me tips  on 
how to back up all autox-going mails.


Regards
J. I. Sendoro
The Network Is The Computer



On Tue, May 30, 2000 at 01:52:33PM -0400, Paul Aviles wrote:
> I know how to create backups for all incoming and outgoing messages by modifying the 
>extra.h file, but it is possible to target only certain accounts to do the backup on? 
> This box has multiple virtual domains and one of them wants to track incoming and 
>outgoing only for certain accounts. Using the extra.h copies everything for all 
>virtual domains. Is this possible with qmail? 
> 
> Thanks
> 
> -pa
> 

Re: Backup

[Dave Sill]

Mark Lo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>  I am a Newbie, this is my first time to use qmail server, So that
>I don't know what do I have to backup for qmail.  Please point me out
>what do I have to backup for qmail in a daily backup operations.  (also
>running pop and smtp at the same box)

Back up everything (/var/qmail and user's mailboxes) as often as you
want, using whatever tools you prefer. If you have to restore the
queue (/var/qmail/queue)--which is usually not a great idea since your
backup copy is soon outdated--you'll need to run one of the utilities
available from www.qmail.org to rename the files by inode.

-Dave

Re: BACKUP POP SERVER

[wightman]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

> Date:Mon, 15 May 2000 16:43:17 CDT
> To:  Jhun Hubac <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> cc:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> From:"David L. Nicol" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: BACKUP POP SERVER

[snip]

> I don't see what is saved by this arrangement, over having all
> the users connect directly to the machine with the mailboxes:
> 
> all you gain is complexity and additional possible points of failure.
> 
> NFS isn't free, those packets need to get read off the disk and
> written to the LAN just the same as if the MUA connects directly.

In this specific case, your statement appears to be true, but in a
different case, you may have an improvement.

You can make your NFS "server" a distributed cluster of machines, and
take a single point of failure out of the picture (assuming that your
have multiple network paths, etc, etc).  See the EMC Celera (sp) as an
example.

My $.01 (too cheep for $.02 :)
Brian
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Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

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QrOaRSC0TIn1A87h4ksPFIY=
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Re: BACKUP POP SERVER

[David L. Nicol]

Make sure you have round-robin turned on in your DNS, assuming
that both POP servers have the same name.

If that doesn't work, bother half your users and have them change
their settings to point to the second machine.

I don't see what is saved by this arrangement, over having all
the users connect directly to the machine with the mailboxes:

all you gain is complexity and additional possible points of failure.

NFS isn't free, those packets need to get read off the disk and
written to the LAN just the same as if the MUA connects directly.





Jhun Hubac wrote:
> 
> Hi!
> 
> Is there a way that I can back-up my pop server? I'm using qmail for my two
> servers (both have SMTP & POP3 service).
> No problem of having redundant SMTP servers but it seems that the MUA
> (clients) are polling on only 1 of the two servers.  I'm using NIS/NFS to
> distribute information between the two, so their home directories are on a
> different LINUX machine and the accounts are based on a NIS master.  Is
> there a work-around for this?

-- 
  David Nicol 816.235.1187 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
drawn to the speed and performance

Re: backup MX host

[Russell P. Sutherland]

* Tomasz Antczak ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [22 Apr 2000 09:27]:
> >Add mydomain.com to /var/qmail/controls/rcpthosts
> >on server2.mydomain.com, and make sure that mydomain.com
> >is _not_ in /var/qmail/controls/locals.
> 
> OK. Thanks. But I have one question more. How many messages will be saved
> on backup MX host ?

As many will fit on your disk partition that contains /var/qmail/queue.
In other words you are only limited by the size
of your disk.

> And how long backup MX host store it in queue ? 

By default messages are stored for 1 week (604800 seconds).
To change this value create the queuelifetime file in
/var/qmail/control. For example to decrease the maximumu time
in the queue to 1 day:

echo 86400 > /var/qmail/control/queuelifetime

After making this change you _must_ stop and start qmail-send
in order for the new parameters to take effect.

-- 
Quist ConsultingEmail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
219 Donlea DriveVoice: +1.416.696.7600
Toronto ON  M4G 2N1 Fax:   +1.416.978.6620
CANADA  WWW:   http://www.quist.on.ca

Re: backup MX host

[Tomasz Antczak]

"Russell P. Sutherland" wrote:

>> mail to host server1 when it will be reachable again.
>>
>> What I must do for in this situation on server1 and server2 ?
>
>Add mydomain.com to /var/qmail/controls/rcpthosts
>on server2.mydomain.com, and make sure that mydomain.com
>is _not_ in /var/qmail/controls/locals.

OK. Thanks. But I have one question more. How many messages will be saved
on backup MX host ? And how long backup MX host store it in queue ? 

-- 
Greets, Thomas

Re: backup MX host

[Russell P. Sutherland]

* Ronny Haryanto ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [21 Apr 2000 12:08]:
> > What I must do for in this situation on server1 and server2 ?
> This question has been answered too often. Nothing on server1 and put
> domain.com in ONLY rcpthosts on server2.

Agreed. I have had several private queries this week
as well. [ A person somewhat knowledgable in terms of MTAs and
DNS came up with FAQ 4.1 as covering his query.]

Dan: Perhaps it should be an entry for the Qmail FAQ?

-- 
Quist ConsultingEmail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
219 Donlea DriveVoice: +1.416.696.7600
Toronto ON  M4G 2N1 Fax:   +1.416.978.6620
CANADA  WWW:   http://www.quist.on.ca

Re: backup MX host

[Ronny Haryanto]

On 21-Apr-2000, Tomasz Antczak wrote:
> If host server1 will be "unreachable" I would like to save mail
> for mydomain.com on host server2, and when retransport this saved
> mail to host server1 when it will be reachable again.
> 
> What I must do for in this situation on server1 and server2 ?

This question has been answered too often. Nothing on server1 and put
domain.com in ONLY rcpthosts on server2.

Ronny

Re: backup MX host

[Russell P. Sutherland]

* Tomasz Antczak ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [21 Apr 2000 11:57]:

> I have small problem with qmail. I have two serveres, both running
> qmail 1.03. I set DNS for mydomain.com like that:
> 
> IN  MX  0 server1.mydomain.com.
> IN  MX  10 server2.mydomain.com.
> server1 IN  A   10.10.10.1
> server2 IN  A   10.10.10.2
> 
> If host server1 will be "unreachable" I would like to save mail
> for mydomain.com on host server2, and when retransport this saved
> mail to host server1 when it will be reachable again.
> 
> What I must do for in this situation on server1 and server2 ?

Add mydomain.com to /var/qmail/controls/rcpthosts
on server2.mydomain.com, and make sure that mydomain.com
is _not_ in /var/qmail/controls/locals.

-- 
Quist ConsultingEmail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
219 Donlea DriveVoice: +1.416.696.7600
Toronto ON  M4G 2N1 Fax:   +1.416.978.6620
CANADA  WWW:   http://www.quist.on.ca

Re: backup mail server

[Jonathan McDowell]

On Tue, Apr 18, 2000 at 08:55:46AM -0600, Andy Bradford wrote:
> Thus said Gabriel Ambuehl on Tue, 18 Apr 2000 14:58:00 +0300:
> 
> > Do you mean this seriously? I can't see a problem with a secondary
> > which is using exactly the same config (we normally clone our
> > systems as the first one except for the lack of the entries in local
> > or virtual... As long as your primary doesn't go any longer than
> > just a few minutes, you surely don't need a secondary, but if the
> > hardware fails, it's possible that it will be down such long
> > (depends highly on the admins, available spare system etc.) that
> > some mails bounce...
> Yes seriously.  Most MTA's will queue email for at least 3 days, so
> unless your hardware failure lasts that long then you should be fine.

Secondary MX can come in handy when you lose routing to parts of the
world, but your secondary MX doesn't and can still talk to you. At one
point last year JaNET in the UK lost transatlantic bandwidth (we love
you Teleglobe, no really) but my main email address at the time
continued to receive mail as the secondary MX was outside JaNET but
within the UK.

On the other hand I'd be incredibly careful about who I trusted enough
to secondary MX a domain for me.

J.

-- 
] http://www.earth.li/~noodles/ [] "It only counts as a lie-in if you  [
] PGP/GPG Key @ keys.pgp.net or [] don't get dressed before tea time." [
] finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] []  -- Steve Willison  [
] PGP: 4DC4E7FD / GPG: 5B430367 [] [

Re: backup mail server

[Ian Lance Taylor]

   From: Russell Nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
   Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 08:44:39 -0400 (EDT)

> I have two mail servers - on is located in a different country - My
> question is how do I become a backup for that other server in the event
> that it goes down or looses connectivity??
> 
> I have added entries into DNS so as the two severs are secondary MX's
> for each other..  BUT what needs to be done on the qmail side so that it
> will accept these messages and queue them until they can be dilivered??

   This is a bad idea.  Why?  Because you're setting yourself up for the
   situation a friend was just in.  His main server went down, and the
   secondary kicked in.  Unfortunately, the secondary server had become
   misconfigured (or was never configured correctly in the first place)
   and his email started bouncing.

I dunno, I had a case where we were saved by a secondary MX.  The main
mail server crashed just before a long weekend and wound up being out
for a week.  Being able to push up the queuelifetime on the secondary
MX almost certainly saved mail from bouncing.

Naturally we tested the secondary MX failover when we installed it,
and we would test it again if we ever changed the configuration.

Admittedly this wouldn't happen at a working company where the mail
server would be rapidly replaced.  But there are lots of other sorts
of people on the net.

Ian

RE: backup mail server

[Greg Owen]

> I have two mail servers - on is located in a different country - My
> question is how do I become a backup for that other server in 
> the event that it goes down or looses connectivity??

Firstly, consider why you are setting up a secondary.  Does it offer
any advantages over letting the senders keep mail in their queue?  Does it
allow mail system maintenance to go without disrupting mail flow?  In some
cases a secondary offers no tangible benefit, and causes maintenance
headaches, which WILL cause mail to bounce if you don't stay on top of it.

To do it, however,

Add that servers domain to /var/qmail/control/rcpthosts, but make
sure that it is not in locals or anything like that.  Send mail* to that
domain via your mail server to make sure you're configured correctly.  Set
up the MX records for the domain so that your server is a listed MX server,
albeit with a lower priority (lower priority == higher number).

An option is to use smtproutes to hardwire the forwarding, instead
of trusting DNS records to be correct.  The plus is that someone can mess up
DNS and  your secondary will still forward; the minus is that if you want to
change your primary mail server you have to remember to do so in two places,
which can create maintenance problems.


* An easy way to test is to telnet to port 25 of the secondary from
a remote location and send mail by hand.  That means using SMTP commands
HELO, MAIL FROM, RCPT TO, and DATA.  The archives of this list are full of
examples.


-- 
gowen -- Greg Owen -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]

RE: backup mail server

[Greg Owen]

> This is a bad idea.  Why?  Because you're setting yourself up for the
> situation a friend was just in.  His main server went down, and the
> secondary kicked in.  Unfortunately, the secondary server had become
> misconfigured (or was never configured correctly in the first place)
> and his email started bouncing.

Your friend's problem was not that he had a secondary server.   Your
friend's problem was that he had a misconfigured secondary.

If we discouraged people from running software that they often
misconfigured, this list would be a dead dull desert with wind and dust
devils floating through.

If you're going to run a 

[smtp server / smtp secondary / dns server / dns secondary / web
server / pop server / server / unix machine / windows machine / tonka truck
]

then you've either got to learn to do it right or live with your
mistakes.  Every one on this list who knows how to do the above got there by
doing it, making mistakes, learning from them, and doing it right.  Some
people probably even arranged that their mistakes be in testing setups
rather than live.


Having said that... splitting control of primary/secondary between
two people is a setup that does ask for mistakes to be made.  And handing
off secondary to your ISP is asking to be shot in the head.

-- 
gowen -- Greg Owen -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: backup mail server

[Russell Nelson]

TAG writes:
 > I have two mail servers - on is located in a different country - My
 > question is how do I become a backup for that other server in the event
 > that it goes down or looses connectivity??
 > 
 > I have added entries into DNS so as the two severs are secondary MX's
 > for each other..  BUT what needs to be done on the qmail side so that it
 > will accept these messages and queue them until they can be dilivered??

This is a bad idea.  Why?  Because you're setting yourself up for the
situation a friend was just in.  His main server went down, and the
secondary kicked in.  Unfortunately, the secondary server had become
misconfigured (or was never configured correctly in the first place)
and his email started bouncing.

Overall, he would have been better off without a secondary MX server.
His mail still wouldn't have been delivered (a secondary doesn't
deliver the mail, it just re-queues it), but neither would it have
bounced either.

-- 
-russ nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  http://russnelson.com
Crynwr sells support for free software  | PGPok | "Ask not what your country
521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315 268 1925 voice | can force other people to
Potsdam, NY 13676-3213  | +1 315 268 9201 FAX   | do for you..."  -Perry M.

Re: backup mail server

[Peter van Dijk]

On Tue, Apr 18, 2000 at 09:01:30AM +0200, TAG wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have two mail servers - on is located in a different country - My
> question is how do I become a backup for that other server in the event
> that it goes down or looses connectivity??
> 
> I have added entries into DNS so as the two severs are secondary MX's
> for each other..  BUT what needs to be done on the qmail side so that it
> will accept these messages and queue them until they can be dilivered??

echo hisdomain.com >> /var/qmail/control/rcpthosts

Greetz, Peter.
-- 
Peter van Dijk - student/sysadmin/ircoper/madly in love/pretending coder 
|  
| 'C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot;
|  C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off.'
| Bjarne Stroustrup, Inventor of C++

Re: Backup mail server, MANY MAIL servers

[kbo]

On Fri, May 21, 1999 at 05:44:39PM +0300, ivan wrote:
> hi,
> 
> How can I setup a QMAIL as a backup mail server, what I have in mind ?!
> 
> I have other email server (under NT) and I want if it is down the second mail
> server (in this case QMAIL) to recieve and send mail and second, users still to
> have access to their POP3 mail boxes.
> If this is not posiblle with different mail servers then how with 2 QMAIL
> servers. What about of synchronizing them if they use a separate storage space
> (2 diff. HDD on 2 diff. computers.).
> What about many mail servers ?!?!

One way is to have an nfs server and two qmail servers. Put all
the user maildirs on the nfs server and mount them on the two
mail servers. Each mail server should have a qmail queue installation
on thier local disk. 

Ken Jones
Inter7
http://www.inter7.com/qmailadmin/ - web admin of vchkpw virtual domains