DNS/MX record help

[rootaxs]

Hi,

I currently have a couple dozen domains all with active mail systems. They're all set-up in DNS as mail.domain.ext

Right now a new server is being set-up and i need to port over all services/mail, unfortunately the mail server on the current machine and the new server are incompatible in several ways so i can't just import the data.

My question, would setting up two MX entries for each domain forward the mail to both Servers at one time?

e.g.

mail.domain.ext (10) --- server 1
mail2.domain.ext (10) --- server 2

Any ideas appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Damaged]

No. That'll work round-robin...kind of. What you want to do is first make sure your ttl is set low, like 15 minutes. If your ttl is currently set higher just lower the ttl, commit the change, then wait that amount of time. After that time has expired and the new ttl is in effect, then make the change to your mx record. Should be minimal downtime. After a few days, then up the ttl back to your normal settings.

 

[Xanathar]

What type of servers?

Unix, NT, Novell? And Software Running? Sendmail, Exchange, MSMail, Groupwise?

You way want to think about just putting the new server in place, on the current IP, and moving the old server to a different IP and mask. informaing all clients that thier old mail is available from oldmail.X.com but their settings will remain the same.

 

[rootaxs]

Damaged: I figured RR would happen. I could do the low TTL on the MX records, though i am trying to avoid doing that since i cannot move over the db from one mail server to the other and thus the users will still have to access their mail from mail. as well as mail2. My concern is if i have both mail and mail2 up and running simultaneously then of course all mail will just go to mail. but the users will still already be checking their mail from mail2. I just want them to be able to check both mail. and mail2. and still get the same incoming mails they normally do until such a time that i can just turn off the service completely on the old server.

Xanathar: That would be a good idea however i can't do the service transition all at once since several daemons are running on a single server (ftp/dns/mail/www) and right now i'm in the middle of things. mail is running Mdaemon on WinNT while mail2 is running MerakMail on Win2kAS btw.

I guess i just want things to be *very* seamless. Am i just being too demanding on this one?