Cheap exchange failover?

[Hfnet]

We are looking to provide a way of receiving emails in the event our exchnage server goes down or needs to be taken offline for any length of time. Cost is a major factor.

Is there a simple smtp system that we can have running on another server or pc that will collect emails in this event? In an ideal world we would like to be able to inject those emails into exchange once it is back online, but the ability to be able to view the emails either in outlook or a web browser would be the minimum requirement.

Thanks.

 

[Zelandakh]

Your ISP may well offer this facility for free / minimal cost. Suggest you speak to them as a first port of call.

Beyond that, an SMTP relay is what you want and they are free but put that on site at your peril - what happens if your site goes down? You lose Exchange AND the relay.

 

[Hfnet]

We are hosting our own email using SBS 2003, no ISP involved in email collection. We are having to take our server offline and do work which could involve the server being down for over three hours, so we are looking for something to sit on another Windows 2003 server that we can divert port 25 to in our firewall as and when we need to, just to ensure that mail does not start bouncing while we are exchange-less.

 

[Zelandakh]

You get access to the Internet using an ISP...I didn't mean email collection.

3 hours won't be a problem as each email will retry for 24 hours.

 

[Hfnet]

It may be down for more than 3 hours, could be over a whole weekend. My boss wants a solution in place so he knows that he can down the sbs server for as long as needed at any time.

 

[Zelandakh]

Then I'd call your ISP - I've found most of the ones I've used have offered the service for minimal money.

SMTP relay / SMTP back off.

 

[Hfnet]

What my boss is looking for is a simple fix that doesn't involve any isp, so he can use the solution at other sites as well. The solution needs to be a local one on a Windows system that we divert port 25 to, to collect mail, can be viewed and does not need any extra intervenion except for port redirection.

If we set up an SMTP relay on a Windows Server, what happens to the mail? Does it get stored in a queue folder? That would be a simple solution as we could then drag the emails into the Exchange server queue folder when it comes back up I guess.

 

[snella]

Do you have any servers for e-mail content security? If so you could configure these to qurantine all you e-mails while your Exchange server is down.

 

[ShackDaddy]

Backup MX at a third-party provider: up to $30/year, 10 minutes to implement

Onsite additional SMTP server: hardware and time cost - probably $200 easily, maybe more if there are configuration issues.

I don't know why your boss is so intent on digging a hole without using a shovel. I know that there are large spoons available, but still...

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net

 

[Zelandakh]

You can use the SMTP relay in IIS on any server you have running. Change your MX record to point to that IIS box instead and have that relay to Exchange.

If your site link goes down you are in the same hole as if your Exchange goes down but if that's the solution you want, it shouldn't take more than an hour or so to implement and another hour to test thoroughly.

 

[58sniper]

Don't forget, too, that if your SBS is down, you'll also need a backup domain controller/global catalog.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/