Single-Server to a Multi-server Installation

[danieldaluz]

Hi all,

The load average of my single-server its around ~4.00 to 5.00. The cause i think its the volume of messages per day (around ~25000 per day).
How can i separate the MTA server to other server and integrate it with the main server?
Today i don't have the anti-spam + anti-virus running, if the separate can be done, i want to start using them too, is it possible?

Thanks all!

[uxbod]

Please let us know which version you are running?

su - zimbra
zmcontrol -v

[LMStone]

Originally Posted by danieldaluz

Hi all,

The load average of my single-server its around ~4.00 to 5.00. The cause i think its the volume of messages per day (around ~25000 per day).
How can i separate the MTA server to other server and integrate it with the main server?
Today i don't have the anti-spam + anti-virus running, if the separate can be done, i want to start using them too, is it possible?

Thanks all!

OK, so first get a copy of the multi-server install guide, because there are a few little things you need to do to get things running.

But, in principle, this is easy and we have done this a number of times.

The second server you add IMHO should be an MTA only server, but running an LDAP replica (to reduce the load on the existing single server). The manual shows this as one of the installation scenarios.

Then, for all the domains on your Zimbra server, change the public MX records to list the new MTA server as the primary MX, and the existing server as the secondary MX. After you are comfortable everything is working, you can block inbound port 25 traffic to the mailbox server and remove the secondary MX record if you like.

In the admin console, you may also want to make the new MTA server as the Webmail MTA server, so that all outbound email is sent through that server (and the new server handles all the deferred emails instead of your existing server).

The two trickiest bits we found the first time we did this were:

1. In the initial Zimbra install on the second server, make sure you configure all the LDAP parameters correctly or replication won't work.
2. Getting syslogging to work (SLES uses syslog-ng, and the Zimbra scripts only work with syslog, but there is a wiki article and/or a forum post for this.)

This is definitely one task which will work best if you read the manual several times. Don't feel bad if the first time you try it it doesn't work; just post here and we'll all try to help!

All the best,
Mark

[danieldaluz]

Originally Posted by uxbod

Please let us know which version you are running?

su - zimbra
zmcontrol -v

Its the 5.0.6

Originally Posted by LMStone

OK, so first get a copy of the multi-server install guide, because there are a few little things you need to do to get things running.

But, in principle, this is easy and we have done this a number of times.

The second server you add IMHO should be an MTA only server, but running an LDAP replica (to reduce the load on the existing single server). The manual shows this as one of the installation scenarios.

Then, for all the domains on your Zimbra server, change the public MX records to list the new MTA server as the primary MX, and the existing server as the secondary MX. After you are comfortable everything is working, you can block inbound port 25 traffic to the mailbox server and remove the secondary MX record if you like.

In the admin console, you may also want to make the new MTA server as the Webmail MTA server, so that all outbound email is sent through that server (and the new server handles all the deferred emails instead of your existing server).

The two trickiest bits we found the first time we did this were:

1. In the initial Zimbra install on the second server, make sure you configure all the LDAP parameters correctly or replication won't work.
2. Getting syslogging to work (SLES uses syslog-ng, and the Zimbra scripts only work with syslog, but there is a wiki article and/or a forum post for this.)

This is definitely one task which will work best if you read the manual several times. Don't feel bad if the first time you try it it doesn't work; just post here and we'll all try to help!

All the best,
Mark

Ok Mate, I will try and then i will post here about the results!
Thanks about the attencion.

[bill.carlson]

Hey All,

I'm in the middle of adding a second server to a single server setup on NE 5.0.10. The second server is at a different site.

Is there doco that lists what firewall ports need to be allowed between servers for the various services?

Related, the installation of the second server setup syslog forwarding to the primary. I already have central syslog at both sites, will removing the syslog forwarding affect anything?

Edit:
Followup answer to my second question:
The statistics depend on the syslog data getting to the primary. No syslog to primary, no statistics for secondary and likely some other features.

Zimbra: syslog data should not go plain text over the Internet.