Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 09:26:23 +1000 (EST) From: Colin Campbell <sgcccdc@citec.qld.gov.au> To: <brian.jackson@third-rail.net> Cc: <freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Mail Cluster Question Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.33.0109070920550.75026-100000@guru.citec.qld.gov.au> In-Reply-To: <20010906124736.7C8BB37B403@hub.freebsd.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi, On Thu, 6 Sep 2001 brian.jackson@third-rail.net wrote: > Hi everyone, > > I've currently built an e-mail cluster with three machines running > qmail (and FreeBSD, obviously). Each machine is running pop and smtp, > and they are all "balanced" using round robin DNS. > > One of the machines is exporting it's /usr/home directory, and the > other two are mounting this directory on their /usr/home, so that no > matter which machine you hit you get your mail (not enough $$ for a > NetApp Filer...). > > Each of these machines has two disks mirrored running vinum (for a > separate thread, yes you can have two disks mirrored running vinum and > boot off either...), but I'm paranoid - what happens in a catastrophic > situation where the machine exporting /usr/home goes away? Has anyone > done anything similar? > > I'm thinking of just using a simple rsync script locally on each > machine, and then un-mounting / re-exporting / re-mounting file > systems, but this seems - well, complicated. The only way to guarantee a clean failover is to use dual-ported disks or a SAN. Everything else (eg a NAS) leaves you with a single point of failure until someone allows mirroring of nfs-mounted disks or provides a network block device (Linux terminology) that also works under vinum for example. Thiking about this very problem the other day got me wondering whether vinum would work on a vnode which was a remote file (I know vn won't do that yet, but it would certainly make these HA systems easier). Colin To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.4.33.0109070920550.75026-100000>