IMC Setup

[jlmartini]

Hi -

We have two Exchange 5.5 SP4 servers in the same site. We want the second server to handle all IMC transactions for inbound and outbound. We have the Internet Mail Service installed for both servers (the first server will act as a backup) How is this setup on the IMC connections for both servers?

On the first server we tried to "forward messages to host", putting in the host name of the second server (secondserver.company.com). That did not work.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks.

J

 

[ATCal]

Where are the mailboxes? Are they distributed between both servers? More importantly, what do you mean by backup?
Al
atc-computing@home.com

 

[jlmartini]

The mailboxes will all be on the first server only. The second server will only do the IMC transactions. What I meant by "backup" is that in case the second servers IMC fails, we can use the first server's IMC. (DNS is setup for this)

Thanks.

 

[ATCal]

Where do your Servers reside in regard to your network? I can only assume that you have a single interface connection to the internet and that the servers have private addresses.

The two IMCs should potentially be identical. Being that they are both in the same site they shouldn't care where the mailboxes are or who receives the mail. I would install it on both and then test them both by disabling one and then the other.

If your scenario is different post it and I will try to help more.
Al
atc-computing@home.com

 

[rws]

If both IMS's are configured the same, the mail will always go out the first server because it is the least cost route with all mailboxes on that server. If there is a problem, mail will simply build up in its queues. The IMS is not "tied into" the MTA the way a Site Connector is. As long as the MTA sees a route, it will continue to route mail there, unable to tell whether the service is running or mail is leaving the server.
I suggest setting both up an testing them, then removing the address space on the first server and recalculating routing(or setting that one for inbound only, if you want). If there is ever a problem with server two, you can manually move the files in the imcdata\out directory to the other server. Kind of a pain, but it should work.

 

[jlmartini]

Thanks. I will try both of your suggestions!

 

[jlmartini]

I think I am more out of this than I should.

I have 2 exchange servers, one will hold mailboxes and the like, the other will hold the IMS. How do I get the IMS to work this way??

 

[jlmartini]

Removing the address space seemed to work the best! Thanks for your help!