Disaster Recovery on a Multi Server Configuration

[dlochart]

I just finished reading the WIKI on Backup/Restore and Disaster Recovery (Single Machine). Our configuration is split. We have a separate machine designated as our MTA and another machine for our Server/Mail Store/LDAP etc. If the MTA goes down all I need to do is to reinstall with the same version and apply my custom configuration changes which I have saved in CVS.

However I recall that during a multi server installation that you need to install the LDAP / Mail Store machine first. So now I am looking at what happens if our LDAP / Mail Store machine goes belly up.

What other things do I have to take in consideration when reinstalling this server since I already have an existing MTA box installed? (Assume I would follow the instructions from the Disaster Recovery of a single server machine)

thanks

Doug

[jholder]

As long as you're actively backing up LDAP, then the config is saved. You're going to want /opt/zimbra/conf/localconfig.xml
and /opt/zimbra/openldap/db

It might be easier to just set up an cron job to rsync the /opt/zimbra to a remote machine, and then have that machine tar, and date it.

If the LDAP machine goes down, then as long as you restore with all the same conifg, (DNS, hostsfile, server name), then you'll be okay.

[dlochart]

Originally Posted by jholder

As long as you're actively backing up LDAP, then the config is saved. You're going to want /opt/zimbra/conf/localconfig.xml
and /opt/zimbra/openldap/db

It might be easier to just set up an cron job to rsync the /opt/zimbra to a remote machine, and then have that machine tar, and date it.

If the LDAP machine goes down, then as long as you restore with all the same conifg, (DNS, hostsfile, server name), then you'll be okay.

I had planned to use rsync to backup the backup directory to another machine and was toying with the idea of backing up all of /opt/zimbra for both machines.

Are suggesting using a restore of rsync as a recovery approach instead of following the the usual disaster recovery steps outlined in the WIKI? I thought about doing that but since I did not see much mention of it in the forums or the WIKI I figured there it was not acceptible to do that for whatever reason.

Let's say I have to reinstall a new LDAP/ Mail Store. Do I have to do anything to the MTA box to sync things up? I assume the MTA has a hash of an LDAP Password somewhere so I assume I need to use the same LDAP password as I had before.