Not sure which forum to post this in so I'll try here first.

Here is my setup.

Incoming;
Internet->spam server->relay server->mail server

Outgoing;
User->mail server->spam server->relay->Internet

This is set up this way so that the outgoing mail can also teach the spam server. What I am wondering is if I could use the relay server as a smarthost in case the mail server goes down.

It seems to me that I would not have to make any MX changes at all, simply configure relay to act as a smarthost if mail server is down.

If this is the case, does anyone know where I could find some information on configuring the relay to tell it that it is also a smarthost?

Thanks much.

Mike

well we can't tell you how to configure the mta's as you've not told us what they are, they could be MS Exchange for all we know. Essentially though, mail servers are "smart" by default, it's only if you have a rigid internal architecture that you would configure against this, forcing upstream relays etc, indeed if that relay goes out to the net then it will be "smart" as you've not shown an upstream relay, e.g. your ISP, for it to be dumb to in the first place.

Sorry, the MTA I want to use as the smarthost is a qmail server. All it does currently is act as a relay so it is set to allow relay from all connections internally.

As my simple diagram shows, the relay does send out to the Internet if that's what you're asking? The ISP is my own network.

Hope this better explains.

Mike

so it's relaying outbound? that *is* a smarthost surely? What limitations are you currently experiencing?

Well, it's both an incoming and outgoing relay .

Internet->spam server->relay->mail server

And for outgoing;

User->mail server->spam server->relay->Internet

So, what I need is to learn what I need to do on that relay so that it will hold the incoming email should the mail server be down temporarily, then send to it once it's back up.

Mike

again, by default it would store the mail for a while, up to a week or something. is this not what your experiencing?

I've not tested it yet, the mail server doesn't go down very much. I just wondered what I need to do with the qmail server to make sure that it acts as a smarthost.

So, basically, you're saying that so long as it is told to handle/flow email for the mail server that it will automatically hold mail when it cannot reach it? Does it not need to know about the domains/users, etc?

Mike