Two Sites + Two Servers

[simonfishley]

Hi

I am looking for advice on how best to configure our 2 new servers. The Multiple server guide (Multiple-Server Installation) seems to be more about splitting the load/services between multiple servers. I don't particularly want that, I want to fully functional servers, one one each site. Our scenario is as follows:

2 sites, 400kms apart connected by a 4Mb ptp link. ±200 mailboxes on the one site and ±100 on the second. At the moment we have 2 postfix servers, one on each site. Site A users have accounts on the local servers, Site B the same. Users do move between both sites quite regularly.

We are using external LDAP Auth and have replicated LDAP servers on both sites.

I have several questions.

- Which components to I not need to install on the server in SiteB?
- Do I create the users on both servers? With the limited BW between the sites, replication of mail is not realistic at this time.
- If I split the users, how does the server in Site A know the mail is destined for a user at Site B. Do I have to run a zmprov command for each and every user?
- Will zimbraproxy be relevant in this scenario? It seems as if it can redirect a user from SiteB's request back to site be when they are at SiteA.

Any advice and previous experiences will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Simon

[bdial]

Originally Posted by simonfishley

Hi

- Which components to I not need to install on the server in SiteB?

at a bare minimum, probably zimbra-core, zimbra-store, zimbra-spell. you probably want to make a replicia of zimbra-ldap at site b too though. you could probably do this on the same server if you have enough power since you have so few users at siteb

- Do I create the users on both servers? With the limited BW between the sites, replication of mail is not realistic at this time.

no, when you create a user you can specify wether their mailbox is on the server at site a or the server at site b.

- If I split the users, how does the server in Site A know the mail is destined for a user at Site B. Do I have to run a zmprov command for each and every user?

zimbra-mta does a lookup when it receives an e-mail for the mailHost attribute of a user which tells it which host (sitea or siteb) to deliver it to

- Will zimbraproxy be relevant in this scenario? It seems as if it can redirect a user from SiteB's request back to site be when they are at SiteA.

yes and no. if a user tries to login to the server at sitea, but his mailbox is on siteb's server, it will automatically redirect his web session to the other host without zimbra-proxy. but you will see the different address in the browser.

zimbra proxy allows you to deploy a http proxy that the user logs in ot, and it handles proxying the session to the correct mail server.