Does Zimbra multi-server replicate?

[hans@toplanguagejobs.com]

Hi there.

We are currently running Zimbra single-server 5.0.10 on a Debian server. We essentially would like to have a Zimbra hot-standby server. Now, the easy way would be to do regular rsync's, but to the best of my knowledge, this should only be done after stopping Zimbra, rsync'ing, and then starting Zimbra again. All of which would mean that we can't rsync too often and, if the primary server fails, the backup would not be completely up to date.

I've been trying to get a good understanding of Zimbra multi-server, but I can't seem to find any information as to what it exactly does and what makes it multi-server... Does it replicate the accounts, or is it more of a cluster with some data here and some there and therefore just as susceptible to problems if one server dies?

If multi-server is not what we are looking for, what alternatives are there? The whole DRBD setup seems a bit daunting, is there anything simpler or is this the only realistic option?

Thanks

[Klug]

Search the forum, this is a FAQ...

The only supported solution is to use Zimbra NE, with RHCS (or Veritas Cluster Suite) and a replicating SAN.

If you want un-supported solutions, you can go with DRDB (or any other kind of replication) or a HA SAN and VMs.

[hans@toplanguagejobs.com]

OK, gotcha. What does the multi-server do specifically though, out of curiosity?

[Klug]

It's in the doc...

Multi-servers is here to "spread the load" on multiple servers with different roles : LDAP servers, MTA servers, logger server, mailbox servers.

[LMStone]

Originally Posted by hans@toplanguagejobs.com

Hi there.

We are currently running Zimbra single-server 5.0.10 on a Debian server. We essentially would like to have a Zimbra hot-standby server. Now, the easy way would be to do regular rsync's, but to the best of my knowledge, this should only be done after stopping Zimbra, rsync'ing, and then starting Zimbra again. All of which would mean that we can't rsync too often and, if the primary server fails, the backup would not be completely up to date.

I've been trying to get a good understanding of Zimbra multi-server, but I can't seem to find any information as to what it exactly does and what makes it multi-server... Does it replicate the accounts, or is it more of a cluster with some data here and some there and therefore just as susceptible to problems if one server dies?

If multi-server is not what we are looking for, what alternatives are there? The whole DRBD setup seems a bit daunting, is there anything simpler or is this the only realistic option?

Thanks

As Klug points out, only supported method is RHEL Cluster.

But, we have found that maintaining clusters in general creates a lot of administrative work, and, clusters don't always fail over when they should, or cleanly when they do.

As a result, we have found a cost-effective, manual, semi-HA solution is to build the Zimbra farm on identical hardware and purchase a spare chassis. If a server fails, just swap the disks to the new chassis, re-initialize the NIC(s), and you are back up in as little as ten minutes.

If you have a backup MX (ZCS or not), no inbound email will be bounced during the switchover.

Not as slick as a cluster, but a lot simpler to maintain!

Hope that helps,
Mark