Backup Server config

[Dan Rollo <da...@rollocos.com>]

I found a couple references in the list archive about how to setup James as an
Alternate (or backup) Server. My specific goal is to setup a second machine with
James and (using an alternate MX record), have mail delivered to that second
machine only if the primary James server is down. The tricky part is how to get
the second James server to re-deliver any mail it gets to the primary James
server when the primary server is back on line.

I tried a couple things from earlier posts:
"setup James to do remote delivery via a gateway,
and probably set your timeout and retry settings way up.  Go to the
RemoteDelivery mailet configuration, and add a
<gateway>mymainserver.domain.com</gateway>.  This is a domain name or IP
address, not necessarily the domain name for the MX record.  James will then
try to send all messages to this mail server.  In your case, James will
receive messages ultimately intended for your primary mail server, and so if
it does ever get a message, it will try to deliver it to that primary mail
server."

I wasn't sure if the secondary server should have any users defined so I
deleted them all. That lead to filling up my hard drive with delivery error
messages since I forgot that the secondary config file was set to notify the
postmaster (but I'd just deleted the postmaster account....).

I then created a postmaster account (but left all other user accounts absent
from the secondary server.)

This kept me from the "nasty notify non-existant user" loop, but I'm still not
sure the secondary server is setup correctly.

My questions are:
What user's, if any should a secondary James server have defined? (at minimum a
postmaster?)
Would it be best not to notify a "postmaster" in a secondary server? (or is
there a way to notify the "postmaster" of the primary server, tricky given that
both servers claim to service the same domain...?)
What specific timeout and retry settings would you suggest? (I tried retry 15,
and added a 0 to the big timeout number - no idea if that makes sense.)
Can answers to these questions be added to the James FAQ?

Thanks!
Dan

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