On Sat, 23 Mar 2002, dman wrote:
> | They set up multiple MX records with appropriate preference values, and
> | allow the backups to relay for the relevant domains. That's all you need
> | to do.
>
> Is this really any better than not having the backup MX in the first
> place?
Yes. If the backup is close to you, it means that the mail can be
delivered quickly from the backup to the primary when it comes back up.
More importantly, it can be delivered in a controlled manner (e.g. Exim
may well send it all down a single SMTP connection, one message at a
time). On a busy host this matters. Back in the days before Exim, when
we were running other MTA software, I saw a busy machine repeatedly
knocked over when it came back up, because the whole Internet kept
slamming it with a zillion SMTP connections.
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
