Multiple email servers

[icemannz]

Hi all,
I need to create multiple email servers to host our email.
But what I will need to happen is that all the email servers will need to share the one mysql database.
By doing this they would basically be in a mysql master-master relationship.
So if a user changes his email password in webmail, the password change is synced to all the other email servers.

Does anyone know if this is possible in ISPConfig3, I would basically have one server which runs the console and have at least 3 backend servers that are in charge of email for users.

One email server with the accounts for all users wouldn't be enough.
Hopefully someone knows the answer to this as I presume a few of the users here would have the same issue/answer.

[Mark_NL]

So basicly you'd have multiple servers running the same domains?

[till]

But what I will need to happen is that all the email servers will need to share the one mysql database.
By doing this they would basically be in a mysql master-master relationship.

Thats the wrong way to set this up for ispconfig. ISPConfig uses its own replication mechanism.

The ISPConfig setup must be:

1) Create the master server. Make sure that the directory /var/vmail is on a shared medium that all servers can access e.g. a cluster filesystem like glusterfs or a SAN or a NFS server.
2) Create as many slave servers as you need. the /var/vmail directory must be the same shared network drive that you used on the master server. Ispconfig has to be installed on these servers in expert mode, select yes when the installer asks if you want to join a mster server. Select 'n' when you were asked to install the ispconfig interface on the slaves.
3) Login to ispconfig on the master server, go to the server settings and edit the settings for every slave server and select the master server in the "Is mirror of" option field and select save. Ispconfig will then replicate all email user settings to all slave servers automatically.

[icemannz]

Thanks for your info, But one more question:

If I setup the servers as you have described.
If a user brings up webmail on one of the email servers and changes their password,
This would oviously change the password in the Mysql server locally,
Does it also update the master mysql database and therefor all the other email servers ?

[till]

You have to use the master server as mysql connection for the webmail client, if you want to enable your users to cahnge passwords. Also you will have to check if this webmail client supports the kind of mysql replications that ispconfig uses. Every chnage that shall be replicated to the slaves must have a corresponding change record in the sys_datalog table of the master server. This can be done by using the datalogUpdate function from the ispconfoig mysql library instead of using the normal sql update commands.

[icemannz]

Hi in your quote listed below, am i right in guessing that the servers will be setup as a mirror of the main ISPConfig machine.
So does that mean that I have to set them up this way when the ISPConfig main server is first setup, what if I want to add another server later ?
If I have already had the main ISPConfig machine running for some time and it has email accounts etc, then can I still add another email server as you have described.
Thanks your help is appreciated.

Originally Posted by till

Thats the wrong way to set this up for ispconfig. ISPConfig uses its own replication mechanism.

The ISPConfig setup must be:

1) Create the master server. Make sure that the directory /var/vmail is on a shared medium that all servers can access e.g. a cluster filesystem like glusterfs or a SAN or a NFS server.
2) Create as many slave servers as you need. the /var/vmail directory must be the same shared network drive that you used on the master server. Ispconfig has to be installed on these servers in expert mode, select yes when the installer asks if you want to join a mster server. Select 'n' when you were asked to install the ispconfig interface on the slaves.
3) Login to ispconfig on the master server, go to the server settings and edit the settings for every slave server and select the master server in the "Is mirror of" option field and select save. Ispconfig will then replicate all email user settings to all slave servers automatically.