> I don't know if I should put the question here but I've read the
> thread and just want to ask about having two IP address. How can it be
> done? Thanks.

Assuming that you have two IP addresses and domain names the easiest way is to install a second network interface card (NIC) and add the IP address to that card.  You can also do this with a wireless connection as well.  

trying to find out how to create a secondary mercury backup server. Currently I have one server but wish to create a backup server that would take e-mails when the first is unavailable. I know how to create the DNS entries but looking on how mercury needs to be set up so users can get or send e-mails if the main server is unavailable. Best practice suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

> trying to find out how to create a secondary mercury backup server.
> Currently I have one server but wish to create a backup server that
> would take e-mails when the first is unavailable. I know how to create
> the DNS entries but looking on how mercury needs to be set up so users
> can get or send e-mails if the main server is unavailable. Best
> practice suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

I would setup the secondary server to receive the mail via MercuryS via the DNS settings as a MX host and then have the primary server get the mail from the MX host via MercuryD. 

Since you also want the users to be able to pull the mail from this secondary server as well you would have to copy the mailbox structure from the primary to the secondary.  The easiest way to do this is to just copy the entire structure from one system to the other.

I have also been wondering about the use of a secondary mailserver, so I am interested in this question.  For the secondary mailserver to work, I have assumed that I would need two ISP accounts with individual, preferably static, IP addresses, or am I missing something.  I presuime that the OP has this.  I don't think that my ISP will (or even can) provide two residential accounts coming down the same "pipe".

GordonM

It all depends on how much redundancy you require. The ideal setup would be to have the secondary server in another location altogether, using some other ISP for connectivity. Setting up a secondary server in the same place with the same Internet connection will still be useful if the primary server somehow fails (due to hardware or software problems), but only in that case. 

/Rolf 

Thanks, Rolf.  This is a residential set-up, so I am not looking for super-redundancy, but I would like some.  I am also looking at the possibility of a RAID-1 array on the single server to obtain some redundancy, but I am running into difficulties with the machine (motherboard) I am currently using as the server.  The RAID route would probably be the least complicated , if I can get it to work.

I am not really clear how I would set up a secondary mail-server, if I only have one Internet connection (and only have one external IP address), other than manually switching over when I notice a failure of one mail-server.  Maybe this is a router issue.

Gordon

You would need to have more than one public IP address assigned to your connection to make this work (if both servers should be available concurrently with separate MX records). Or two connections, but that is probably a bit over-ambitious for domestic use.

Otherwise it might be possible to have some kind of automatic fail-over between the servers in your local network, but that's not something I've tried so I don't have any suggestions on how to do it.

/Rolf 

I don't know if I should put the question here but I've read the thread and just want to ask about having two IP address. How can it be done? Thanks.