Distributed setup with realtime failover/balancing

[jonas at vrt.dk]

Hi all

 

I am currently running a MAilscanner/mailwatch system on a single server
which works perfect.

 

I however have the need to make my setup distributed, for me meaning the
following.

 

I need a 2 node distributed system. Where I have 2 smtp servers(exim), 2
mailscanners, 2 mailwatch interfaces and 1 distributed mysql database.

 

I plan on using ultramonkey (http://www.ultramonkey.org
<http://www.ultramonkey.org/>  ) to setup load balancing and failover. It
uses LVS and heartbeat to do that.

 

I have the mysql problem pretty well figured out. I’m gonna run a so called
master-master replication between the 2 servers. Meaning any change in the
tables will be instantly replicated to the other server, so should one go
down the chance of data loss is very slim.

 

Regarding the quarantine I also need some more or less complex solution,
since I don’t want to use local quarantine directories for each server. The
reason is that I do NOT want a local quarantine directory on each server. I
do not want that because then I do not have access to release mails
quarantined by the server that is down (Even if if setup some rsync script
it isn’t real-time so data loss is very likely) There for I plan on using a
system like drbd (http://www.drbd.org/ ) or another similar distributed file
system. That means you get a so called “network raid mirror” where all disk
io is replicated across a network so if 1 server fails all data is still
accessible on the other machine. This would enable me to never loose the
ability to release quarantined mails.

 

What I am looking for is comments from fellow mailscanner/ mailwatch users
regarding this solution. Is it a dumb way to do it? Are there better ways to
archive the whole thing, or part of it?

 

I hope somebody has some input.

 

Med venlig hilsen / Best regards

 

Jonas Akrouh Larsen

 

TechBiz ApS

Laplandsgade 4, 2. sal

1067 København K

 

Office: 7020 0979

Direct: 33369974

Fax:    7020 0978

Mobile: 51201096

Web:  <http://www.techbiz.dk/> www.techbiz.dk

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