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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    104

    question about backup mail server

    I have my own ded. server where I host some sites for my friends and me, but another friend (who's not on my server) wants me to be his backup mail server for his domains..

    I'm really not good at all this mail stuff, so can someone explain to me how to do this?

    I'm running RedHat linux with WHM/Cpanel.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Sioux Falls, SD
    Posts
    1,282
    Look up ETRN. Its an addon to qmail, sendmail and postfix that allows you to be the MX 20 for a domain, and it'll queue the mail.

    Basically, if the MX 10 (or whatever the primary is) goes offline, it'll send the mail to your server. Your server will queue the mail if its a domain you allow. When the primary comes on, it will issue an ETRN <domain.com> request to the secondary server and the queued mail will be resent. Sometimes the ETRN request must be manual, a simple telnet <backupserver> 25, then ETRN <domain.com> should do it.

    There are some other ways, but it would be way too complex for this. Involving NFS mounted queues and things of that nature.
    James Cornman
    365 Data Centers - AS19151/AS29838
    Colocation • Network Connectivity • Managed Infrastructure Services

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    104
    When I list my mail server as the secondary MX in the DNS zone file, and his server goes down, then mail will be stored on my server... no?

    And would that be a good solution?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Sioux Falls, SD
    Posts
    1,282
    Yes. Thats the point of it. So his domain does not lose any mail while the server is down.
    James Cornman
    365 Data Centers - AS19151/AS29838
    Colocation • Network Connectivity • Managed Infrastructure Services

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Location
    Yuba City, CA
    Posts
    358
    Hi James,

    I am interested in the reply you gave on this topic. I have been trying to find out more about using ETRN with Qmail. Do you know of any links to information or downloads for this addon?

    David

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Sioux Falls, SD
    Posts
    1,282
    Install serialmail. This will give you the functionality you need.

    http://cr.yp.to/serialmail.html

    "AutoTURN delivery from the ISP. After the dialup computer makes an SMTP connection to the ISP, it automatically receives an SMTP connection back from the ISP if there is any new mail for it. This provides the same power as ETRN but does not require a special client."
    James Cornman
    365 Data Centers - AS19151/AS29838
    Colocation • Network Connectivity • Managed Infrastructure Services

  7. #7
    You might also look into drdb:
    http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/reisner/drbd/

    I don't think this will work with an existing server, but it might be something to think about the next time you need to create a redundant server that's handling files (like qmail).

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