[thelist] European Linux Dedicated Server Host

Richard Bennett richard.bennett at skynet.be
Thu Feb 23 08:51:11 CST 2006


On Thursday 23 February 2006 15:23, Hershel Robinson wrote:
> > My opinion is that redundancy is key. Every system can have some
> > downtime, and it always happens at the worst moment...
> > What I do is host the DNS of the domainname on zoneedit.org , there I
> > setup five nameservers in different continents, and different ip address
> > ranges. The I setup the primary email server pointing to my own server,
> > and as secondary server I use their mailbackup service (secondary etc
> > mailserver could also be used). This means if my server is down, they
> > save the mail on their servers, until mine is back up, and deliver it
> > then.
> > This has saved my neck on many an occasion.
>
> If I understand you correctly, the mail is on your server and if your
> server goes down, the mail is saved on another server, but not delivered
> (via POP3 presumably you mean) until your server is up.
Yes, via SMTP though.
>
> If so, then what have you accomplished? Just that no mail is lost? The
> mail is still not delivered until your server is up--thus the mail
> delivery is still dependent on one server.
>
> Oh, maybe you mean to say that when yours is down they can access the
> mail via web interface so it's not as though they can't get their mail
> at all. This is good for mail arriving after your server went down, but
> what about mail that arrived while your server was up, is sitting there
> waiting to be downloaded, and then your server goes down? That mail is
> stuck there.
In my case the exact time the mail is viewed is not so important, as long as 
nothing is lost, and usually the only downtime we have is at night if we are 
upgrading something, so people are not actually accessing their mail then.

If being able to access mails fast is also an issue, i would setup 2 
mailservers. at DNS level you set them up to be first and second, with 
mailbackup third in case both fail. Then synchronize the mailboxes with 
Rsync, or by setting up the mailserver in box one to send a copy of 
everything it gets to box 2.
Box 2 can have a webinterface that people us when they're on the road, or the 
first server fails...
Something like that maybe.


Richard




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