set up a backup mail server

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kather
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 6:20 am

set up a backup mail server

Post by kather »

Hi, I found this article about setting up ME standaard on a different server as a kind of backup server if the primary mailserver is down.
https://www.mailenable.com/kb/content/article.asp?ID=ME020308

I use as the primary mail server Enterprise edition version 10.37 and as the secondary mail server Standard Edition 10.37.
So I did what the article said: I created the same postoffices on the secondary server; used Smart Host to point to the primary server. I changed the DNS records MX 10 to the primary server en MX 20 to the secondary server.

Then I stopped all services on the primary server (simulating that the server is nog online) and send some mails. I expected to see these mails on the secondary server in the inbound queue. But nothing showed.

So I'm missing something here?

Also in version 10 you can set Smart Host in the service SMTP. Is it still necessaire to set on each different domain the Smart Host? Or will ME take the general set Smart Host in the tab SMTP?

Hope to head from somebody..
regards Walther

CupCake09
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:21 pm

Re: set up a backup mail server

Post by CupCake09 »

In order to configure a back-up server, create the same domains on the backup server, but no email addresses.

Then, set the smart host for each domain to point to the primary server. This means that if the primary server goes down, the email will be delivered to the secondary server. This server will accept all email addressed to a domain, and then try to send this email to the primary server. Since the primary server may still be down, the emails will sit in the outbound queue, and be retried (the retry interval can be set). When the primary server comes back online, then the banked up email is sent through. MailEnable Standard version can be used for the back-up.

This will resolve the back-up of email being received. It will not allow users to connect and send email out or retrieve it. This is because their email client will be pointing at the IP address of the primary server. In order to give users access to the services to send/receive email, consider implementing clustered servers, or a load balanced solution with one common storage for the configuration data and emails.

STSanford
Posts: 102
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2003 4:42 am
Location: Long Island, NY
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Re: set up a backup mail server

Post by STSanford »

Thank you, that's great information.
I was thinking of implementing a backup situation, but wanted to have the second server hosted in a datacenter, is there a way to "cluster" that? Maybe a loose sync where it would just replicate data every 15/30 min?
Thanks for your input.
-Scott

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