Hello,

We have a variety of SMTP enabled apps that currently deliver mail via one
of our internal Exchange servers, lets call that machine "smtpgateway1".
If "smtpgateway1" fails we would like to be able to redirect these apps
with a minimum of effort to another Exchange server which we'll call
"smtpgateway2". Unfortunately these are simple apps and they do not
understand MX records.
Is there another way to accomplish this with (or without) DNS ?


Ed

Read inline please.

In news:O3MpMsXqHHA.3248@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl,
Ed <ed@nospam.com> typed:
> Hello,
>
> We have a variety of SMTP enabled apps that currently deliver mail
> via one of our internal Exchange servers, lets call that machine
> "smtpgateway1". If "smtpgateway1" fails we would like to be able to
> redirect these apps with a minimum of effort to another Exchange
> server which we'll call "smtpgateway2". Unfortunately these are
> simple apps and they do not understand MX records.
> Is there another way to accomplish this with (or without) DNS ?

You can get only basic load balancing with DNS by creating two A records
with the same name, with one having the IP of one exchange server, and the
other having the IP of the other Exchange server(Both with a very low TTL).
I say basic load balancing because DNS will use round robin to rotate the
records, first one then the other. It's as close as you can get if the apps
don't support failovers.



--
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In news:egHK7HYqHHA.1204@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl,
Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP] <admin@nospam.WFTX.US> typed:
> Read inline please.
>
> In news:O3MpMsXqHHA.3248@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl,
> Ed <ed@nospam.com> typed:
>> Hello,
>>
>> We have a variety of SMTP enabled apps that currently deliver mail
>> via one of our internal Exchange servers, lets call that machine
>> "smtpgateway1". If "smtpgateway1" fails we would like to be able to
>> redirect these apps with a minimum of effort to another Exchange
>> server which we'll call "smtpgateway2". Unfortunately these are
>> simple apps and they do not understand MX records.
>> Is there another way to accomplish this with (or without) DNS ?
>
> You can get only basic load balancing with DNS by creating two A
> records with the same name, with one having the IP of one exchange
> server, and the other having the IP of the other Exchange server(Both
> with a very low TTL). I say basic load balancing because DNS will use
> round robin to rotate the records, first one then the other. It's as
> close as you can get if the apps don't support failovers.

For Exchange, you'll need Clustering to perform this. Two servers set in an
Active/Passive scenario using the same Storage Groups. If the active node
fails, Clustering services passes the EVS (Exchange Virtual Server) to the
passive node to continue operations. It will then notify the administrator
the other node has failed.

Technical Overview of Windows Server 2003 Clustering Services:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...lustering.mspx

278007 - Available Features in Windows Server 2003 Clusters:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;278007


--
Regards,
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT, MVP
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
Microsoft Certified Trainer

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Ed,

I work in the same type of environment where many tier 3 applications
depends on mail functionality and most of them are poorly written and have no
intelligence to cannot handle any type of failure as well as road balancing.
In this situation to have the minimum impact on business and the application
a little trick can do the work? I f the application is directly relaying to
internal smart host, build local SMTP on the application server or build a
staging server and install local SMTP on it. Have your application to point
to local SMTP
With local SMTP you can have round robin and have it point to multiple mail
gateways. We most often use UNIX as local SMTP; you can use windows IIS build
in SMTP engine if you like. By doing this you will bring more redundancy to
the old , poorly written application. Your single point of failure will be
the mails getting sent from application to the local SMTP engine. Unless you
are able to change the code within the application you will not be able to
remedy, single point of failure. I have not seen many problem mal getting
sent from application to the local SMTP, and if Local SMTP has capability to
reroute the mail you will be on safe side
Best regards
Oz


--
Oz Ozugurlu
Systems Engineer
MCSE 2003| M+| S+
MCDST | Security+|Project+

oz@SMTp25.org
http://smtp25.blogspot.com (Blog)


"Ed" wrote:

> Hello,
>
> We have a variety of SMTP enabled apps that currently deliver mail via one
> of our internal Exchange servers, lets call that machine "smtpgateway1".
> If "smtpgateway1" fails we would like to be able to redirect these apps
> with a minimum of effort to another Exchange server which we'll call
> "smtpgateway2". Unfortunately these are simple apps and they do not
> understand MX records.
> Is there another way to accomplish this with (or without) DNS ?
>
>
> Ed
>
>
>

In news:egHK7HYqHHA.1204@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl,
Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP] <admin@nospam.WFTX.US> typed:

Sorry Kevin, I meant to reply directly to Ed.

Many thanks to all for the responses. We will likely take the approach of
having an SMTP server locally on the application servers.

Ed

"oz.ozugurlu" <ozozugurlu@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1669697F-C653-4610-99DD-C73C7BFE502D@microsoft.com...
> Ed,
>
> I f the application is directly relaying to
> internal smart host, build local SMTP on the application server or build a
> staging server and install local SMTP on it. Have your application to
> point
> to local SMTP
> With local SMTP you can have round robin and have it point to multiple
> mail
> gateways.
> Best regards
> Oz
>
>
> --
> Oz Ozugurlu
> Systems Engineer
> MCSE 2003| M+| S+
> MCDST | Security+|Project+
>
> oz@SMTp25.org
> http://smtp25.blogspot.com (Blog)
>
>
> "Ed" wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> We have a variety of SMTP enabled apps that currently deliver mail via
>> one
>> of our internal Exchange servers, lets call that machine "smtpgateway1".
>> If "smtpgateway1" fails we would like to be able to redirect these apps
>> with a minimum of effort to another Exchange server which we'll call
>> "smtpgateway2". Unfortunately these are simple apps and they do not
>> understand MX records.
>> Is there another way to accomplish this with (or without) DNS ?
>>
>>
>> Ed
>>
>>
>>

In news:%2317yYAjrHHA.4768@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl,
Ed <ed@nospam.com> typed:
> Many thanks to all for the responses. We will likely take the
> approach of having an SMTP server locally on the application servers.
>
> Ed
>

Very good. Good luck. If you have any other questions, feel free to post
back.

Ace