backing up an email server

[btimms]

When the server my vps is on failed last week (aura) I had current backups of all the sites and databases and the JPC restore was recent enough that it was primarily only an inconvenience. I also signed up for some JPC backup space - so I could cron backups to ftp for more timely restores. However, email issues presented some potential problems that I would like to find a solution to:

1. Several important emails were bounced during the outage and after the restore there were some exim settings that were not restored as they were setup before the failure and as a result I could receive no emails after the restore for several hours until support was able to find and correct the exim setting.

2. I use IMAP for email and after the restore there were a number of emails were not restored because they were received after the most recent JPC backup.


So I'm wondering if anyone could suggest any potential solutions. Bounced emails for any reason don't inspire confidence and depending on how recent the JPC backup is losing stored could be a big problem (does the cpbackup also backup the IMAP emails?).

Any suggestions appreciated.

Bob

[the_ancient]

well there are several things you could do.

1> Buy another account, and have jag set up some DNS Fail over for the MX. this will elminate the bounced emails, but would mean you would have to retrieve all of the emails from the other account once the restore is done

2> Download all of the messages via POP3 as a backup, leave them on the server for your IMAP, but you would have a local backup of all the incoming mail

3> Move all of you mail to a 3pp. For example I use Google Apps, Google will host all of your email services and you get 2GB per account and the Gmail interface. This is FREE, you can upgrade to the 25GB/account plans if you want to pay.

[btimms]

Thanks. Google Apps looks pretty interesting. I'm going to set up one of my domains to try it out.

I had looked at a secondary MX service but as I understand they are primary spam targets.

[thisisit3]

I'd stay away from gmail or other similar service. Gmail reads your emails and marks specific keywords and sends you targeted advertising. Not my cup of tea, especially for my business domains/accounts.

Look at my signature, i've come up with a very reliable backup system. If its too complex for your needs, then a secondary MX at an alternative server is the next best solution i think.

[btimms]

I've looked at your solution and plan to give it a try. However, it doesn't solve the bounced email issue when my vps is down. I know that most email delivery systems will try to deliver the email for some period - usually 7 days or so? But I had several really important ones that physically bounced with no delivery retry when Aura was down - fortunately I was told about them so I was able to recover. But bounced emails for 12 hours - regardless of the reason I don't think are acceptable for any reason.

Thanks

[the_ancient]

I'd stay away from gmail or other similar service. Gmail reads your emails and marks specific keywords and sends you targeted advertising. Not my cup of tea, especially for my business domains/accounts.

Blah, Paranoid Much?

[the_ancient]

Thanks. Google Apps looks pretty interesting. I'm going to set up one of my domains to try it out.

I had looked at a secondary MX service but as I understand they are primary spam targets.

Unfortunately that is the only way your going to get the mails if the server goes down. if there is only one MX record and the Server is down, the email will bounce.

if there is a 2nd record the mail will be routed through that instead of being bounced.

[btimms]

A secondary MX service could be a nice little extra from JPC.

[Daniel_DBS]

i use google apps email on 5 of my domains... works great.. never have had a problem... give it a shot

[thisisit3]

Blah, Paranoid Much?

that would apply if gmail reading your emails and sending you targeted advertising was a myth, unfortunately it isn't as you can see for your self by reading the license you accept when you sign up for their service.

[the_ancient]

that would apply if gmail reading your emails and sending you targeted advertising was a myth, unfortunately it isn't as you can see for your self by reading the license you accept when you sign up for their service.

I know what they do, I ignor the ads, this is no different than the adwords that scan my pages to deliver targets ads to the user.


Your paranoid in thinking that Google is for some reason going to blackmail you or something over your emails.... I am more afraid of companies that don't tell you want they are doing, until google gives me a reason not to I trust them.

Any ISP you use, including JPC, has the ability to go under handed things with your email, I no more control google, than you control JPC. I trust both of the companies or I would not use their services.

[thisisit3]

blackmail me? go under handed?

i think you taking this way out of proportions and completely off subject. As per my original post, i said that Gmail's method of reading emails is "not my cup of tea". Definitely nothing to do with "blackmail".

As i said, its just not my cup of tea, not something i like or prefer in any way, and if i don't want anybody to read my emails then i use GPG to encrypt them.

[btimms]

I'm still wandering in the woods on this. I get using google apps and using a secondary mx server. But I'm trying to understand what files cpbackup actually backs up to ftp. The whm panel gives options for sites and mysql - it also says it doesn't back up config files when ftp is used. What about email - is the email server backed up. I've spent a time searching on this and its amazing to me (most things are) that I have not been able to find out anything. Specifically, I'm trying to find out if cpbackup in whm backs up the email servers.

Any input greatly appreciated.

[JPC-Masood]

I'm still wandering in the woods on this. I get using google apps and using a secondary mx server. But I'm trying to understand what files cpbackup actually backs up to ftp. The whm panel gives options for sites and mysql - it also says it doesn't back up config files when ftp is used. What about email - is the email server backed up. I've spent a time searching on this and its amazing to me (most things are) that I have not been able to find out anything. Specifically, I'm trying to find out if cpbackup in whm backs up the email servers.

Any input greatly appreciated.

With ftp backup, what is being backed up is individual cpanel accounts in FULL. So what this means is that you can restore all accounts with all of their data (including emails, sql) from those backups. However if you do some server-level customization to httpd.conf or exim.conf, those will not be backed up via ftp backup. What you can do is document such customization so that if you need to restore/resetup, you can easily do that.

In short, there is nothing required to backup in "email server" unless you made some server level changes in its configuration, in which case you can just backup the conf file manually or document the changes.

[btimms]

Thanks Masood - much appreciated!