making a back-up smtp server

[wreikun]

Hello. I am currently running two linux servers (TurboLinux 6.5) at work. dns1.server.com is running as a DNS server, thus handling all of the companys mail (user@server.com), while

http://www2.server.com

serves regular webpages (this server doesnt run DNS nor does it run sendmail).

Heres what Id like to know: If the server dns1.server.com were to ever go down for whatever reason, the company would find itself without access to mail. In that event, I am wondering if its possible to make the

http://www2.server.com

server to accept mail being addressed to user@server.com.

Theoretically, I was thinking that if you were to change the MX record in the zone file for dns1.server.com in the secondary DNS server to point to the smtp of

http://www2.server.com,

and the

http://www2.server.com

had the same users as the server dns1.server.com, the

http://www2.server.com's

smtp will accept the mail and put it into the users mailbox ready to pull. Is this correct?

Whats really getting me confused about this is the fact that the two servers have the same domain names but different host names. One is "dns1" and the other "

http://www2".

Just thinking about this whole thing gives me a headache. if anybody could throw some pointers my way, it will all be GREATLY appreciated. thanks!

-REI

 

[Valcor]

I'm working on a similar situation, but nobody has placed a reply. The problem being is the way you have an idea on setting it up. You are looking at duplicating users, making more work for yourself in the even that one or two people decide to change passwords. There is supposed to be a way of setting Sendmail up so that it queues the mail for another server (ie, acts as a backup server until the first comes back up) so that no mail is lost. When the original server returns, it sends the collection signal, and picks up the mail from the backup server. The DNS configuration works something like this:

domain.com.  IN MX 10 mailserver1.domain.com.
domain.com.  IN MX 20 mailserver2.domain.com.

This sets up mailserver2.domain.com as a backup MX server. In the event that the first cannot be reached, the second will be used instead. The bit I cannot work out is the sendmail setup bits If anybody knows, I'd be grateful to know as well --
Jon