2 SBS servers, 2 locations, 1 email domain name

relichd

Hi,

We've got two offices. One in Dublin, one in Limerick. In each office we have a SBS2003 server with its Exchange part enabled.

Let's name the SBS2003 servers like so: SBS server in Limerick would be SBSLIM, SBS server in Dublin would be SBSDUB.

The network domains are different in each of the two offices: SBSLIM runs a SBSLIMDOM domain network, SBSDUB runs SBSDUBDOM domain network.

The e-mail domain name is maildub.com (example) for Dublin office and maillim.com (also example) domain for our Limerick office.

I am trying to create a situation where we can use a single email domain for both our offices, name it companydomain.com.

What I hope to do is to have both Exchange servers receive emails coming to our companydomain.com mailboxes.

My thinking: If I had two MX records for companydomain.com and set their preference/distance so that the first attempt targets our SBSDUB and if it finds out that there's no such mailbox managed by SBSDUB, it will automatically try to deliver the message to SBSLIM.

My question for Exchange and MX record experts: Is it doable? If yes, what are the catches. If not, what are the options. Being a self-study network administrator, I read through many discussion forums but couldn't find any proper answer.

Thanks.

David.

n0brain3r

relichd wrote: »

My thinking: If I had two MX records for companydomain.com and set their preference/distance so that the first attempt targets our SBSDUB and if it finds out that there's no such mailbox managed by SBSDUB, it will automatically try to deliver the message to SBSLIM.

Nope it will generate a NDR as the account doesn't exist on the server and the mail delivery will fail.

I've a similar setup on a couple of sites but I chose to host the mail externally and use the SBS POP3 connector. Both servers will collect the mail from a single external host.

Also if you make both servers non authoritative for the domain when internal users set mail to users on the other site Exchange will route the mail externally and onto your hosted mail platform.

Alternatively you could just configure Exchange on one site make it authoritative route all mail there and use OMA on the remote site to connect to the authoritative Exchange box.

relichd

n0brain3r wrote: »

Nope it will generate a NDR as the account doesn't exist on the server and the mail delivery will fail.

I've a similar setup on a couple of sites but I chose to host the mail externally and use the SBS POP3 connector. Both servers will collect the mail from a single external host.

I was afraid somebody's gonna say this The trouble with POP3 connector is that it only downloads the messages in 15 minutes interval (unless i'm missing something). And the trouble with the OMA is that our uplink speed is so limited I'd need to consider relocating the server...

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts on this n0brain3r! I really appreciate it

Boskonay

Shift the exchange entirely offsite, but run the clients locally / remote / branches as needed.

Stick a full Win 2008 / exchange 2010 server in the cloud - cost should be relatively nominal depending on number of seats...

rolion

option 1:
get this one from here:
http://www.servolutions.com/popconpro.htm
and play with the rules from the application itself !


◦Poll POP3, POP3-SSL, IMAP and IMAP-SSL mailboxes and forward mail to a single MS Exchange™ or Lotus Domino™ Server mailbox or distribute mail collected in a single catch-all mailbox to multiple MS Exchange Server™ mailboxes according to user the mail was sent to. POPcon analyses the mail header fields (TO:, CC, received .. for, X-RESENT-TO, etc.) and filters mail recipients for matches to pre-configured "allowed" domains.



option 2:
1.get a single domain "companydomain.com"
2.configure MX records to point to a single ISP
3.create a catch-all account.
4.download POP3Con and get emails the catch-all account on to Dublin server every minute.
5.IF no local user exists,setup in SMTP to deliver 'unknown emails" to a smart host that is in fact,Limerick SBS server with proper valid accounts
6.done.


Other options

-use MX SMTP feeds ,disable 'apply default policy per user email address' and set whatever email address domain you want at the user level with proper catch-all or SMTP feeds setup.

- http://www.servolutions.com/cscatchall.htm

have fun...and keep the horses in the back yard !

relichd

Boskonay wrote: »

Shift the exchange entirely offsite, but run the clients locally / remote / branches as needed.

Stick a full Win 2008 / exchange 2010 server in the cloud - cost should be relatively nominal depending on number of seats...

This would defo be the best solution but the server housing services are quite expensive. Talking about 15 mailboxes it would probably be the a better price/value to get a hosted exchange subscription.

Anyway, what I did for now is I have all the companydomain.com emails delivered to our Dublin server, where it looks up local domain user list. Those user accounts of workers in Limerick are set to auto-forward messages through SMTP connector. I had to register a different domain name for Limerick though. Hope I will find a better solution soon because the broadband connection isn't very fast to handle all the traffic in a timely manner...

Thanks for all you suggestions and help here! I really appreciate it