I realize this topic has come up a few times in the forums, and a few suggested solutions have been presented, but here’s a summary of what I’m attempting to accomplish.
When I create a domain on “A”, I want it to create website account on “A”, mysql databases on “B”, dns entries on “C/D”, and email accounts on “E”…
I’ve already got “A”, “B”, and “C/D” figured out…
The missing link is “E”…
I was thinking, could it be as simple as the method used for creating mysql databases, in that you could provision a setting telling the server which node handles email, and then upon creation of mailboxes on “A”, it actually creates and manages them on “E”?
Look forward to seeing what can be figured out!
Ultimately I’d like to isolate email on a separate node, and have it smart enough to adjust the dns records accordingly as well.
*** As a bonus, if there’s an easy way to setup one or more “backup mail server (mx)”. Even it’s a simple “store and forward” design, that would be fine. ***
Yeah, I’ve historically done it manually, but am hoping for a method which will hopefully one day automate the process, as it’s sorta the missing link.
I was thinking either the feature might be implemented the way handing off control to an external mysql server is done, or the way cluster slave dns servers are handled…
To elaborate on the latter, perhaps if both machines ran at least Webmin, and spoke over the RPC protocol to one another the same way other clustering options do, and when Virtualmin added a domain, told the mail server running (Webmin or Virtualmin) to create a user and setup email… Then whenever the domain was updated, it’d send these changes to the mail server…
This isn’t to say that there isn’t room for some “creative solutions” – but ATM, there isn’t an automated way to do that sort of thing. Which is largely because it’s rather tricky
It’s certainly possible to add users into LDAP or MySQL, and to be able to access those users from other servers – but it’s also necessary to make changes to the Postfix config whenever domains are added, the procmail config when Spam/Virus settings are changed, DNS records and config files when SPF or DKIM is enabled, etc.
That is, there’s an awful lot of stuff that needs done both with users, and with config files, and there isn’t currently a way to have Virtualmin on one server, but also be able to configure all those things on a remote server.
The Cloudmin Services plugin for Cloudmin is going in a direction like that, being able to split certain features onto a remote system. Unfortunately, it doesn’t currently support email, although it may eventually.
However, regarding your second question, configuring a backup email server – that should indeed be possible!
The very point of this thread is to discuss this functionality, and perhaps brainstorm how it might be possible to implement.
I feel the more we talk about the idea, and brainstorm how it might be done the closer we’ll get to actually seeing the functionality make it’s way into Virtualmin and/or Cloudmin.
I have a service to hire only the domain registration you get a free email.
This email account is in “A”.
But if you hire the service of corporate email, data is migrated to the “E”.
So “A” has service hosting and email basics. The corporate email is rotated only in “E” without web page.
Gotta have the option of running Web Services and Email in “A”
I think this does not seem a simple thing to do, have many points to be touched.
