Thinking about a backup mail server

I really like my LVS from Redwood Virtual. It give me full control of what, for all practical purposes appears to be a whole Linux server. Sure, it is a small one, but you pay for what you get. However, one thing that has happen once or twice in the years I’ve had my LVS is that for some reason, it will go down, and it will take a few days to come back up. The latest was last week, when a clerical error caused my LVS to be deactivated (this was the reason why if you tried to read my blog last week, you couldn’t connect). While Redwood made good on this, it was still down for a few days before it got fixed. They aren’t the fastest to respond to support requests, and I wasn’t in town, so it took me some time to get back to them with the information they needed. All-in-all, not a good situation for an e-mail server. Sure, I set up my DNS entry with Zoneedit to forward e-mail somewhere else when I noticed there was a problem, but I’m sure I missed some mail before I changed the DNS (although it was most likely spam). I guess I have a few options, but the ones I’m considering the most are 1) moving my mail server to another hosted site that is more suitable for mission-critical applications, 2) subscribing to a broadband Internet connection that will allow me to run my own mail server at home, or 3) find another mail server and make it a backup mailserver. I’m not really sure how that works with DNS and all, but I’m sure there is a way to do it. I think I’m leaning towards that option, but will need to investigate how. A fourth option would be to write some sort of shell script that will change my Zoneedit DNS settings if it notices my mail server is down to add a mail forwarder (and remove it when it is back working again). That seems too much like a kludge though.

As I mentioned despite this last episode which caused ecorrado.us to be down for a few days, I’m still happen with Redwood Virtual and don’t plan on giving up on my little LVS. They have done good by me, and offer a really nice service for the price.

3 Comments

  1. Dave Harding said,

    February 14, 2007 at 15:02:43

    DynDns provides a backup MX service, but its a bit pricey at $30/year[1]. A Google search for “Backup MX” shows other similar services for about $19/year.

    -Dave

  2. Dave Harding said,

    February 14, 2007 at 15:02:33

    Oops, I forgot my reference:

    [1] http://www.dyndns.com/services/mailhop/backupmx.html

  3. Rob said,

    February 15, 2007 at 16:02:50

    Speakeasy is, IMHO, the isp of choice for geeks. Their terms of service are completely reasonable, “Unlike many ISP’s, Speakeasy allows customers to run servers (web, mail, etc.) over their Internet connections, use hubs, and share networks in multiple locations”.

    See http://www.speakeasy.net/tos/

    On the other hand, they are a bit more pricey than ordinary broadband ISPs.