Re: [exim] heartbeat load balancing and exim

Jeroen van Aart wrote:
> Just some ideas about using something like heartbeat to load balance 2
> or more MTA servers. Say in the case you have 2 servers and wish to
> combine them in a load balancing set up. This would require a 3rd server
> to serve as a load balancer, either using heartbeat or a dedicated
> machine like a cisco box.
>
> If this is the case wouldn't implementing a load balancing setup
> actually introduce more points of failure? You have halved the chance of
> a failed MTA server causing downtime, but introduced the chance of the
> load balancer failing, causing downtime of both MTA servers. You also
> may have to deal with the added complexity of replicating the mailstore
> on 2 (in this example) servers, and such a mechanism (using rsync, or
> drbd) will have its own chance of failure.
>
> Or is there a way to access a server directly, automatically, when a
> load balancer fails? Maybe I am missing some obvious things.
>

If you wish two servers with the same IP, you can also have a look at
CARP on BSD or ucarp if you are using linux. This way, there is no third
machine involved.

But, as WB Hacker told, it is much more simple to just have 2 MX records.