Re: [Exim] Backup Mail Server

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Author: V. T. Mueller
Date:  
To: Odhiambo Washington
CC: Exim Users
Subject: Re: [Exim] Backup Mail Server
On Mon, 5 Nov 2001, Odhiambo Washington wrote:
> | You maybe have to think over a few scripts to dynamically switch your
> | POP/IMAP/whatever-server´s IP for example.
> That would mean that I start delivering locally on the backup server???


Probably not. It depends where your users are. Do they access mail locally
on your primary machine or do they access mail remotely via POP or imap?

If the latter is the case, you have the chance to switch over the IP
and/or the hostname of your POP/IMAP server to the fallback MX. Users
then can still access new email until the primary host gets available
again.

The setup starts to become interesting as soon if you implement a third
machine to hold copies for later synchronization.

> | You can also set up a general HA system and put a few other services
> | on it so it´s worth the time and money.
> Okay, I must admit that I'm floating on this one. What is a HA system?


I´m sorry. "HA" stands for "High Availability". Generally achieved by a
certain degree of redundancy and a varying level of clever software.
Sophisticated systems such as HP9000 also provide certain features on the
firmware/hardware level. A decent HA system can, however, also built on
two cheap PCs, an open-source HA suite or simply by using a handful of
scripts to manipulate DNS records and rc scripts.

hth,
Volker


--
V. T. Mueller      UCC Freiburg, Germany     vtmue (at) uni-freiburg.de


             "problems are just opportunities in work cloth"