multiple locations

[uday277]

Hi All

I do not know, this could be a novoice question.

The situation is bit tricky - I have a 40 user ZCS OS box running perfectly on our companies domain 'example.com'. We are coming up with 2 branch offices with 50 email user at each branch and I need a ZCS installation at each of this locations on the same domain (example.com).

So how to configure the ZCS so that the local mails at the branch office 'A' are delivered locally whereas only the mail to the outside world and branch office 'B' finds its way out??

I have tried split DNS but I guess that is only good for a single server installation. How do we achieve this when the servers are more than one and the domain name is same??

Please help!

Thanks

[LMStone]

First question is why does each branch need its own locally hosted Zimbra server; couldn't the existing server (perhaps with some upgrades) handle the load of an extra 100 users?

Probably I am missing something?

All the best,
Mark

[uday277]

That's because the locations are remote where the connectivity is not very stable.

The idea is whenever the connectivity is down at least the branch users should be able to communicate and use the ZCS. Whereas the mails destined to the outside world / other branch would que up and transferred as soon as the links are up.

[LMStone]

Originally Posted by uday277

That's because the locations are remote where the connectivity is not very stable.

The idea is whenever the connectivity is down at least the branch users should be able to communicate and use the ZCS. Whereas the mails destined to the outside world / other branch would que up and transferred as soon as the links are up.

OK, I understand.

A mutli-server Zimbra installation needs to be colocated (or have very fast and solid WAN connectivity), and Zimbra doesn't support replication across WAN links, so this is going to be hard to do with just one domain across three locations with independent Zimbra servers in each location.

One alternate, easy-to-setup-and-administer way to do this is to use entirely separate domains for each branch office, keeping the Zimbra servers totally separate of each other.

For example, user1@branch1.yourdomain.com, user1@branch2.yourdomain.com, user1@branch3.yourdomain.com.

Users would log in to their own respective Zimbra servers regardless of their location.

But... I can't help but wonder if everyone wouldn't be happier upgrading the branch office connectivity, perhaps using the budget for the two additional Zimbra servers to pay for that?

Or, users at the remote branch offices could use Zimbra Desktop or the Outlook Connector and you could put those extra 100 users on your existing server.

Hope that helps,
Mark