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Re: SOLUTION? how to hold mail in another machine temporarily



On Mon, 29 Jun 1998, Carlos Carvalho wrote:

: Hi folks,
: 
: I asked some days ago here how to make another machine hold the mail
: while the main mail server is down. People told me to put another MX
: record in the dns to point to the temporary machine.
: 
: Sure this is necessary, but I don't think it's enough. First, the temp
: machine must recognize all users, otherwise it'll bounce the message.
: Second, I'd like it to not only queue the mail but *dump it on the
: main one when it comes up*. If I just put the MX record, the secondary
: will hold the mail in IT'S /var/spool/mail, and users will not
: automatically get it.

Huh?

MX records are Mail eXchange records - this is what they were designed
for.

Let's say host A has an MX preference of 10, and host B has a preference
of 20.  As long as a machine can deliver mail to host A, host B will
never see it - the mail will be delivered directly to host A, and the
MTA there will deliver the mail locally (or do whatever is appropriate).

Now, let's imagine that host A goes down - it is unreachable from the
Internet.  All mail destined for host A will now be delivered to host B.
Both MX records still exist, but since host A cannot be reached host B
is the next most preferred contact.  Host B knows that it is not the
final destination (because of the MX record for host A) so it queues the
mail in /var/spool/mqueue (if it's a linux box).  Host B will attempt to
deliver that mail for as long as the timeout period allows.

: I found a solution: For every user, put a forward in /etc/aliases
: pointing directly to the main server (argh...). This works, but it's
: ugly. Is there a better way (using sendmail or other MTA)?

See above :)

--
Nathan Norman
MidcoNet - 410 South Phillips Avenue - Sioux Falls, SD  57104
mailto://finn@midco.net   http://www.midco.net
finger finn@kepler.midco.net for PGP Key: (0xA33B86E9)



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