Hi thanks for that, but my second server is my linux based web site using cpanel...
Main Topics
Browse All Topics
Loading Advertisement...
Question
How to setup a backup mx/mail server?
Hi all,
I have an Exchange server (SBS 2008) and I want to setup a backup email service so that email will continue to be received elsewhere in the event of my server being down.
- My website is hosted and I use cpanel to administer it.
- I have an mx record that points mydomain.com to mail.mydomain.com
Can I set up a lower priority mx record to point mydomain.com to itself? I assume so, but:
- what happens to the user accounts that I have on my server, do I have to replicate the accounts on my webmail or is a catch all ok?
- can I setup some kind of queue so that the email will be forwarded to my exchange server when it becomes available. If yes, how? cron?
Thanks,
Warren
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get
Instant Access to this Solution
- Plus...
- 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
- Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
- Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
- Never be left without tech help again
Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.
- "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
- "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
- "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.
See what Experts Exchange can do for you.
Got a question?
We've got the answer.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
Need individual assistance?
Our experts are ready to help.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Want to learn from the best?
Read articles from industry experts.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Working on a long term project?
Store your work and research.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Trusted by the world's most respected brands.
Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Free Tech Articles
-
WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
-
SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
-
Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
-
Create a Win7 Gadget
This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
-
Outlook continually prompting for username and password
There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
-
Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...
Cloud Class Webinars
- Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
- Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
- IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
- Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
- How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...
Join the Community
Give a Little. Get a Lot.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
Answers
Warren,
The cPanel will allow you to create DNS 'MX' records so you can publish where your mail servers can be found. That's easy enough.
The second task is the ensure that you have a secondary mail server that is able to accept mail for your domain and then store it until your primary email server is available.
Consider if you want a backup server in case of a connectivity issue / telecommunications problem or some building specific issue at your main office. If so, then you need your backup server to be located elsewhere. In this example there are plenty of email backup facilities out there that will accept (catch all) ALL mail and store it until your server is live again. Generally these systems will check whether your email server is accessible at specific time intervals.
The other option is for you to setup your own backup email server as efq-uas has suggested, and ensure that the server can accept inbound mail from anonymous users. This could be configured to store mail in queue and then deliver to your main email server post-disaster.
The other option which will protect against hardware failure on a single server is clustering. This will be more expensive to implement and may not assit if you have an internet connectivity issue?
It all depends what you are trying to protect against.
Shaun
Hi
Pofix is very good for you. It will behave as a backup email server. and when first server will be up it will forward all emails to it.
http://www.cyberciti.bi
This article will help you a lot to configure it.
Thanks.
Personally I am not a fan of backup MX solutions as I find they are spam magnet.
I wrote this blog posting a while time ago one why they were a bad idea and an alternative.
http://blog.sembee.co.uk/a
Simon.
Hi Simon
When you say they are a spam magnet, would the domain get spammed more just for having a secondary MX record?
I have read your articles (great articles btw!) and you say the spammers would use the backup MX record to route their spam, however what if the main server has no spam protection in the first place, in this case the backup MX record shouldnt make spam worse right?, I'm thinking it would all end up going to the same server regardless of which MX record was used.
The most effective way of dealing with spam is to drop it at the point of delivery. If the email has already been accepted and then you attempt to reject it, you are at best wasting bandwidth, at worst causing back scatter, depending on how your backup MX record server deals with the messages.
I am running a long term experiment with one of my clients, where we have two internet connections in use. The same antispam software is protecting both connections (Vamsoft ORF). There are two MX records. The second MX record gets approaching double the amount of spam sent to it that Vamsoft deals with.
You don't get more spam, it is just that more of the spam that is sent to your domain is sent via the second host. If the second server does not have the same level of protection - even something as basic as recipient validation, then your infrastructure has to deal with more spam.
Simon.
I think I see what your saying, in my case I dont think it will make a difference however since the main server has no spam protection in the first place so spam coming in via different route is no worse then spam coming in on the main server.
All of our customers are SBS customers with no spam protection on the server, generally spam has not been much of an issue
Maybe mail relay services instead of backup mx is the answer, e.g. http://www.dyndns.com/serv
I'm trying to think of the best disaster plan, maybe the best way is to just setup a temporary IIS server to hold the mail and then once exchange is running to drop the mail in the pickup folder.
Hi all,
Thanks for all the contributions - they are all appreciated. I found this
http://forums.cpanel.net/f
and I was going to try it, but then I came up with my own solution.
I now have a Google mail account with Google Apps the address me@mydomain.com; it's free for small groups and organisations. Google Apps also allows MX records to point to it therefore, when my server is down, my 'me@mydomain.com' mail will redirect to google. Now for the best bit - Windows SBS 2008 has a POP3 mail reciever that I've set up for each account that simply checks (at a specified interval) the google account and delivers to an Exchange account on the server. So if the server is down, Google will get the mail. When the server is back up, it will retrieve what it missed from Google. It's perfect for my one server, 5 user small business.
3 Ways to Join
Business Accounts
- Perfect for organizations
- Multiple users
- Save over 36%
- Create a Business Account
Answer for Membership
- Earn free access
- Showcase your knowledge
- No credit card required
- Sign Up to Answer
Loading Advertisement...
by: efg-uaePosted on 2009-06-14 at 01:08:14ID: 24622289
Hi
You need to setup one More Server in the Same Active Directory. so that All users are available to both Exchange Servers.
You need 2 Mx Records. with different IPs. One MX record with higher priority to your current server. and other mx will point to your backup server.
When one mail server will be down. Email will be automatically routed to other mail server.
You can also achieve this goal by clustring.
http://www.msexc
Regard