[DRBD-user] active/active mail server

Duane Cox duanec at mail.illicom.net
Fri Dec 1 00:05:22 CET 2006

Note: "permalinks" may not be as permanent as we would like,
direct links of old sources may well be a few messages off.


I'm wanting to setup two mail servers in an active / active role, basically meaning both are working, operating, sharing the load.

I have a layer-4 switch that I can use for the IP side of things, but I am looking for a solution for the data (mailboxes).

I have 2 Dell Servers that each have 5 hard drives and 2 gigabit network cards.

Here is what I would like to do, please tell me if it is possible, not possible, or just plain stupid.

I would like to have a solution, so that if one server died, no user would notice, I would like to do this without a SAN or External
SCSI device.

My Idea is to link the 2 servers via IP using a crossover cable and one NIC from each machine.  Use the remaining NIC for Internet
inbout/outbound traffic.
Since each server has 5 drives, I would like to setup some sort of array that DRBD would manage and keep in sync.

>From what I have read on the website, DRBD doesn't support write from both nodes.  Has this been changed?  I think I would need
write access from both nodes?  If so, who is the author of DRBD?

Thanks
Duane Cox




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