Redundant Mail System Suggestions

[Johnny Stork]

Thanks kindly, and yes Zimbra was going to be one of the 3-4 systems I 
will setup for them to demo. Its been a year or more since I looked at 
Zimbra and so am lookign forward to seeing the changes.

I didnt realize the SA uses the database anywhere? But maybe I missed 
this in the setup. I have been running MS/MW for a few years now and 
have been very happy.

UxBoD wrote:
> Hey Johnny,
>
> Personal I would go with the primary and secondary MX record solution.  Multiple A records are find but IMHO are more used for load balancing than redundancy.
>
> I presume MySQL will be used for MailWatch and SpamAssassin and then replicated, but you could look at storing the MS configuration withing LDAP (never tried this myself).
>
> If you are looking for a groupware solution I personally would recommend Zimbra http://www.zimbra.com . They have both a OSS version (what I am using here) and a commercial version.  Outlook plugins etc.  As standard it uses a Ajax full featured web interface and is superb.
>
> Regards,
>
> --[ UxBoD ]--
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> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Johnny Stork" <stork at openenterprise.ca>
> To: mailscanner at lists.mailscanner.info
> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 6:20:22 PM (GMT) Europe/London
> Subject: Redundant Mail System Suggestions
>
> I am working with a client seeking redundant mail and dns services so 
> have been trying to come up with some suggested architectures.
>
> client has dual internet connections. So my first thought was create two 
> identical MS/MW (mailscanner/mailwatch) systems, and assign each a 
> different MX record with one being higher priority than the other. The 
> machine running MS/MW would also be a DNS server so what would be the 
> best way to setup some redundancy for both DNS and incoming mail?
>
> Primary MX Record 111.111.111.111 (Internet connection 1)
> Secondary MX Record 222.222.222.222 (Internet connection 2)
>
>
> What are the benefits/differences between creating a  single A record 
> with the same hostname, but the two different IP's above, versus 
> multiple MX records but all with the same/different priority? Or, just 
> list the machines as seperate MX records with the same priority?
>
>
> The next step is how to I ensure that the MS/MW systems on both servers 
> remain synchronized? I can easily point them to a common Mysql database 
> which will be running internally and will be redundant by way of a RH HA 
> Cluster, but what about the mail user accounts? The client will be 
> running an internal groupware solution, possibly Scalix, so all mail 
> coming in to the gateway MS/MW servers will simple get forwarded with a 
> mailertable entry so is there any need to synchronise anything else 
> between the two gateway MW/MS servers?
>
> If anyone has any other suggestions/ideas for setting up such an 
> environment I would be greatful.
>
>
>
>
>   

-- 
*Johnny Stork*
Business & Technology Consultant
stork at openenterprise.ca