Request: Information on an isp setup

[thesquib]

I've been investigating setting several new servers for a few months in my spare time at work, and things are coming to a crunch. I have had a test box running for a while on ISPConfig, with Debian Sarge. For the most part this has been great - aside from a weird issue where it won't reboot (i haven't been able to identify what this is yet because theres no video signal.. haven't found any logs).

Anyway - I was wondering what experiences people have had with setting up mail / web / database services. Currently we have a system with no fallback, limited syncing/backup. Mail server is run on some old version of Windows. There is one BSD box which has a mysql/apache/bind.

So obviously this is crap :)

The load on these servers needs to easily handle 150 websites, and a 1000 email users. An obviously not all at once. The mail here is more important than anything else.

We want to split this up, we want to have a webserver (with a fallback), a load balanced database server (if one of these servers goes down ideally it would fallback on the other). A mail server, with a backup which would in the case of failure i nthe primary server, would catch emails and deliver them when the server is back online.

Is it a good idea to do split this up? In terms of easy configuration etc... We also want to be able to have some form of web based configuration, and we all agree ispconfig is good. But it won't work over multiple servers..?

Is it better to setup a couple of boxes configured with sql/apache/dns/mail and load balance, sync - and have a third to backup...

I guess i'm trying to figure out a good way to get started. There are good tutorials here, which I have been using for starting points for my test setup. But now i'd like to get to the real thing.


Any thoughts and questions welcomed...

[thesquib]

Here are my thoughts for a mail server..
Do these:
http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_debian_sarge
http://www.howtoforge.com/virtual_postfix_mysql_quota_courier

The second tutorial should mean the mail data is stored in a mysql database...so it should be possible to make my own php based (or whatever) intreface to simply add/delete/edit users...

Correct?

[falko]

The second tutorial should mean the mail data is stored in a mysql database...so it should be possible to make my own php based (or whatever) intreface to simply add/delete/edit users...

Correct?
Yes, that's right.

I've written some tutorials about load-balancing and high-availability:
http://www.howtoforge.com/high_availability_loadbalanced_apache_cluster
http://www.howtoforge.com/loadbalanced_mysql_cluster_debian
http://www.howtoforge.com/mysql_database_replication
http://www.howtoforge.com/high_availability_nfs_drbd_heartbeat

Of course, you need a lot of hardware to do this (or you use virtual machines, for example with XEN: http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_xen3_debian )

[thesquib]

Thanks Falko -
We have about 6 servers to do the job. Can ISPConfig cater for multiple servers

[falko]

Can ISPConfig cater for multiple servers
Not, not in the current version. This will be available in version 3 (but don't ask when it will be released...:p ).

[thesquib]

In terms of a backup mail server ...
I hear the best way to do it is to have a server to fall back on which will collect mail whilst the primary server is down. When the primary is working again the backup should forward the collected mail on.

Is this standard? It does seem to be a reasonable answer as trying to keep two mail servers sync'd and up to date constantly would be fairly hard..

Anyone had experience in doing something like this or a similar method?

[falko]

In terms of a backup mail server ...
I hear the best way to do it is to have a server to fall back on which will collect mail whilst the primary server is down. When the primary is working again the backup should forward the collected mail on.

Is this standard?
Yes, this is a widely used solution. You simply configure a second mail server and enter it in your MX records with a lower priority as your first mail server. When the first mail server is down, mails will automatically go to the second mail server, and when the first one comes up again, the second one will deliver those mails to the first one.