Backup Mail Server

kamardhillon · Post by **kamardhillon** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:27 am

Hi All,

We have a MailEnable Enterprise Ver 3 mail server . To provide backup and fault-tolerance we want to create a backup server which should have the data from main server, replicated automatcally. This server could be used in case of emergency like hardware problem in main server.
Please let me know the steps to follow in order to create a backup server for production mail server.Thanking you in anticipation....

Post by **MailEnable-Ian** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:57 am

Hi,

http://www.mailenable.com/kb/viewarticl ... 020193.htm

kamardhillon · Post by **kamardhillon** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 5:37 pm

Hi Ian,

Thanks for your quick response. The article was helpfull but let me explain the exact requirement. We have a production server running on ME Enterprise 3.0 . We want configure another server which would have all the data same as production server so that this server can be used in case of hardware failure at production server. Our second requirement is related to newsletter mailouts.

We send a subscription based newsletters from some of the websites running on a different web server in the network. When ever the mailout ( varies from 3000-4000 each week) is done , the CPU utilization goes upto 100% due to MTA service and anti-virus scan (F-Prot).CPU remains at that level until all newsletter mails are sent out. This is creating a lot of problem for our normal mail process. All the users complain about the slow access to their mails.

Now what we want is to create a new server to send all the newsletter mails from same email addresses from live server and it should have all the data from live server to provide backup and fault-tolerence. I will be highly thankful if you explain me all the neccassary setting and setup to proceed and also tell me what kind of licence do we need for the new server.

Post by **MailEnable-Ben** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 4:24 am

The easiest way to configure what you are requiring here would be to run a back up mail server as outlined in Ian's article above and then create a mailbox on the secondary server for the same domain and send from this server. The mail messages can be changed to have a different reply-to address which is located on the primary if this works for you.
This method does not allow any synchronization of mail and mailboxes but does have a fail safe mechanism that prevents any loss of mail if your primary goes offline.

The other method would be to have two servers set up in a clustered configuration with possibly an IP failover product in front. You would then configure the secondary server to send mail but configure another SMTP send mail program bound to a separate IP for the mail outs.

As for the synchronizing of server data between MailEnable servers I would say it is possible and have even seen some people discuss this possibility in this forum. Some good recommendations were made for this set up but as I have never set up such things I cannot comment. That being said I am sure that the problems with such a configuration would incur limits depending on size of message store and how you handle change over and possibly restore alongside and with/without backup restores.

robertaser · Post by **robertaser** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 5:52 am

To backup our servers we use Acronis Enterprise Server edition, Acronis images our servers everynight, also Acronis has a module called Universal restore, I have restored DELL server from PE 4300 to PE 2900 and PE 2400 to PE 2800, no issues.

Just FYI

rfwilliams777 · Post by **rfwilliams777** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:57 pm

I think you're thinking of a clustering scenario perhaps.

polarisie · Post by **polarisie** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 8:32 am

kamardhillon wrote:Hi All,

We have a MailEnable Enterprise Ver 3 mail server . To provide backup and fault-tolerance we want to create a backup server which should have the data from main server, replicated automatcally. This server could be used in case of emergency like hardware problem in main server.
Please let me know the steps to follow in order to create a backup server for production mail server.Thanking you in anticipation....

If the solution does not require a near realtime failover, i would just recommend keeping a standby server installed with the same settings. Couple this with periodicals backups and you have yourself a backup server. In the event the main mail server goes down just change the IP and you are all set to go.

If you are looking for something more complete then as mentioned earlier you should be looking at clustering options offered in MailEnable or a full blown IP FailOver device together with Windows clustering for near realtime failover

cheers

Post by **MailEnable-Ben** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 6:19 am

Thanks guys good real world advice, does anyone actually run any synch software in this vein? I am sure there was a good thread with some people that I obviously trusted in this forum as I have remembered the thread occurring just not the details. Martin was it you that has ran this configuration?

MartynK · Post by **MartynK** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:36 am

I have managed replication like this for a number of years now using a cheap little program called HandyBackup (ww.handybackup.com) that runs as a service.

With my setup I have replication running every 15 mins so I get a good level of replication. Its quick and its cheap. It could be run more often, just needs to workout the loading.

I also have a friend that is running two MailEnable standard systems using Microsoft DFS to do the replication, he says it works fine also.

polarisie · Post by **polarisie** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:16 am

MartynK wrote:I have managed replication like this for a number of years now using a cheap little program called HandyBackup (ww.handybackup.com) that runs as a service.

With my setup I have replication running every 15 mins so I get a good level of replication. Its quick and its cheap. It could be run more often, just needs to workout the loading.

I also have a friend that is running two MailEnable standard systems using Microsoft DFS to do the replication, he says it works fine also.

Martyn

I've tested the HandBackup and its a neat program. However, i noticed that the replication takes place via FTP which does take a while. Are you also doing it over FTP?

I've been testing out a replication scenario using Rsync and so far the results are promising and the speed is impressive

Cheers

MartynK · Post by **MartynK** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 5:00 am

I did do FTP for a while, but your correct, it takes ages.

What I did in the end was create a shared drive on the backup machine and just mounted it as a mapped drive over the network.

The firewalls on both machines only allow the traffic between the two, so no actual security issues as such. If you really want to make is secure, setup a VPN between the two boxes and run the sync over that.

polarisie · Post by **polarisie** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 5:08 am

MartynK wrote:I did do FTP for a while, but your correct, it takes ages.

What I did in the end was create a shared drive on the backup machine and just mounted it as a mapped drive over the network.

The firewalls on both machines only allow the traffic between the two, so no actual security issues as such. If you really want to make is secure, setup a VPN between the two boxes and run the sync over that.

The shared drive would not be an option for me because the backup server is in an offiste server over a WAN

I've been testing the DFS out but this one appears to need AD

Rsync works fine but the there are permission issues because the files are replicated on a bit level.

MartynK · Post by **MartynK** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 1:08 am

With the WAN issue, setup a VPN, then its not an issue !!

I have done this for something else I am running. Two of my internet servers backup their SQL databases to each other using HandyBackup and a VPN between the two.

rfwilliams777 · Post by **rfwilliams777** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 1:45 am

Regarding the server duplication or failover, I've read that the clustering capabilities with Windows 2003 (even better in 2008) works even better because it does real-time or close to it failover. I, though, have never tried it.

If you're talking about "backing up" or archiving with regards to copying files to another machine on a periodic basis, ABC Backup pro has worked out well. Handy Backup works well, too. The advantage I like about ABC backup is that if the files has not been updated (same date/time stamp (and of course size)), it skips...which speeds up the process. I have used Karen's Replicator a while back and it works fairly well in some respects especially with the latter of skipping same files if not updated.

rfwilliams777 · Post by **rfwilliams777** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 1:48 am

Here's something I do with SQL server backing up...maybe this might trigger a suggestion for a backing up.

At a period of time at night, I have a batch file that stops the SQL server service, copy the mdf and ldf files to a location on the drive. Then it starts the service. After that, I then set it to copy it over to another server. Could a process be done like that where it first stops the service (if necessary), copies the files to a temporary place, zip it or whatever, and then copy it or upload it to another place.

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