Multiple Server Configurations

[dmassot]

Is it possible to run multiple Scalix servers that access the same data store for email etc. I am trying to create some form of redundancy/load balancing.

Thanks

David

[florian]

The current Scalix release does not provide sharing of the message store or replication. However, setting two Scalix servers up in a failover configuration is currently possible in a active/passive setup; one of the next Scalix releases will be offering active/active clustering, where you can distribute your users between a number of servers and any server can take over the load of any other server in case of failure.

hope this helps.

cheers,
Florian.

[dmassot]

Thanks

When do you expect to have this new release available?

[florian]

We haven't set a final date yet; development work is about to be finished any day, then it will be handed off to our QA department where the results of testing will determine the final release schedule.

Please contact your Scalix sales representative for further information! :-)

Cheers,
Florian.

[dmassot]

Is there any documentation on the active/passive setup? Is this just a regulat backup/rsync of the /var/opt/scalix directory to another server with updates suspended?

Help much appreciated

Thanks

David

[jch]

I don't want to say too much otherwise the support guys will have my guts for garters, but I can give you hints I think.

In the current release SAC and SWA don't work terribly well with HA so don't expect everything to work.

Everything you need for a scalix server is installed in /var/opt/scalix. It's created at installation time by ommakeom(8). Basic failover for the server involves installing the scalix-server RPMs on a second machine; you'll need to run ommakeom(8) to get the various configuration bits and pieces in place, but after than you can delete /var/opt/scalix. If you can now arrange for /var/opt/scalix to be mounted on this machine you can start the server.

Generally speaking you'll have an IP alias that you'll switch from one server to the other when the machine hosting the server instance fails. You'll need to make sure that sendmail on both machines is happy to accept mail for the virtual IP address and you should probably do something about failing sendmail over as well (mail might get stranded in the sendmail queue).

That should get you started. You might also want to look at the man page for omsuspend(8) -- it's not immediately relevant to failover, but it's interesting nonetheless.

[jch]

I should've echoed what Florian said: failover and multiple instances aren't supported in the current release. It works for me, but then it would :-)

jch

[William]

Which release has this failover (active/passive setup) functionality please?

[ScalixSupport]

The shipping version, release 10.

Failover and high availability are "Enterprise" features and hence only a supported environment for licensed customers.

Thanks,

Sascha.