We're looking to setup a redundant helpdesk using Kayako and interested in advice from other hosts on the best way to set this up.

My idea is to host the Kayako installation on a subdomain (eg, helpdesk.domain.com) and have the DNS for the domain hosted by Dyndns.org (using their secondary DNS service). The way I understand it, in the case of our primary server DNS failing, web traffic would still be directed to the Kayako installation hosted on the subdomain.

This leads me to another issue; how we can setup redundant email for our support email address, eg, support@domain.com. This address would be hosted on our main server but I'm wondering if we also implement backup MX using Dyndns.org, whether it is possible to point the email to a mailbox on the Kayako installation to ensure tickets are still created?

Maybe someone can answer your questions in Hosting Software & Control Panels. :)

Lois

In the setup you describe, if the server hosting the Kayako setup goes down, then you will have no Kayako - so therefore the setup isn't redundant :) The DNS may be redundant, keeping requests going through, but your helpdesk unfortunately is not.

I can't really give you advise on how to run the redundant setup properly, nor for the e-mail. Someone more experienced in that area may be able to jump in and help out there :)

Good luck.

ST-Mike is correct. YOu can place all the redundancy in front of your server but if the server fails, your site is down.

Your DNS should work. You alwasy want at least 2 DNS servers for your sites. The RFV wants 3 but 2 should be good as long at they are not on the same network.

As for email, the first thing that come to mind is setting up support@domain.com as a group email with emailA@domainx.com and emailB@domainy.com. Then have Kayako check each, as long as they live on different servers.

You could also have multiple mx records out there each catching mail for your domain and then checking each of them. This is not a great way but just another suggestion.

The bigger question is, what are you trying to accomplish? I assume maximum uptime but what else? How long can you stand to be down? Have you considered hosting your email outside with a HA email vendor like liveoffice, google, or mailstreet?

You can go crazy on redundancy and it all boils down to how much do you want to spend versus how long can you be down?