[BlueOnyx:01559] Re: Secondary Mail Server

[Rickard Osser]

On Thu, 2009-07-02 at 12:46 +0100, Darren Wolfe wrote:
> > From: blueonyx-bounces at blueonyx.it [mailto:blueonyx-
> > bounces at blueonyx.it] On Behalf Of Rickard Osser
> > Sent: 02 July 2009 11:34
> > To: BlueOnyx General Mailing List
> > Subject: [BlueOnyx:01555] Re: Secondary Mail Server
> > 
> > On Thu, 2009-07-02 at 11:23 +0100, Darren Wolfe wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > In the update on the 22/03/09, support was added for “secondary mail
> > > server”.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I assume this is used as a backup mail server that holds all the
> > > e-mail in a queue and passes it to the primary once it comes back
> > > online.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > How is it configured, and what do I need to know about it in
> > > operation ?
> > 
> > Hi Darren,
> > 
> > just add the domains and the main mailserver fqdn.
> > 
> > And then set up the secondary box with an (higher number/lower
> > priority)
> > MX-record in DNS.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > 
> 
> Ok, but what exactly happens ?
> I assume it goes like this:
> 
> DNS record has two MX records with the Secondary set at lower priority.
> The Primary server goes offline.
> E-Mail is then delivered to the secondary.
> The secondary holds it all in a queue and periodically attempts to deliver it to the Primary but it never gives up trying.
> When the Primary comes back online, all the E-Mail is delivered successfully.
> 
> Is that correct?
> 
> If so then there are a few things i'd like to know.
> 
> 1. How would you see what E-Mail is in the queue?
> 
> 2. If the Primary was going to be off for a long time and you needed all that queued E-Mail to be delivered to a different server, how would you go about that ?
Hi Darren,

Yes, your description is correct. 

Answers to your questions:
1, Well, log in as admin/root and run mailq as usual to see what's in
the queue. You can always tail /var/log/maillog as well.

2, Change DNS of the main MX-pointer to the "new" mail-server and then
run sendmail -q (after flushing the DNS-cache) or just restart the
sendmail process.

Regards,

Rickard


-- 
Rickard Osser <rickard.osser at bluapp.com>
BluApp AB