Merging multiple servers into one with partitions

[Paul Engle]

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Hello all,

We're embarking on a plan to have a DR server for our cyrus email service, 
and I've come up with some questions about how cyrus works.  We are 
currently using version 2.3.7 on RHEL4.

The scenario:

Three independent cyrus servers, each with just a default partition, 
connected to a SAN. Each server has its own lun mounted as the imap spool 
partition and things work great.

For DR, we have added:

A mirrored copy of the SAN data at a remote location, with the same lun 
partitioning. & a single cyrus server connected to that storage. This 
server will have three partitions defined in the cyrus config, one for each 
of the lun mirrors that is normally controlled by the production servers. 
On an hourly basis, when the mailboxes.db is dumped to text on each of the 
production servers, it will also be shipped over to the DR server. A script 
there will munge them, replacing the 'default' partition in each file with 
the partition name appropriate for that chunk of the mirror, and then merge 
them into a single input file.

In the event of disaster and the production servers & storage are 
unavailable, the plan is that the DR server will mount the three luns and 
the munged/merged mailboxes.db will be imported. The single server will 
serve the community until such time as the production servers are again 
available.

So, my questions:

1) Is this just absolutely crazy to even attempt? :)
2) I've never played with a cyrus server having multiple partitions. I 
noticed in some testing that when I use the mkimap tool on the DR server to 
set up the cyrus framework, the partition directories contain a "sync." 
directory. This directory doesn't exist on the single-partition servers 
we're using now. Is that going to pose a problem when the mirrors of those 
partitions are all mounted on the DR server?
3) If the answer to #2 is 'yes', then can I safely create an empty "sync." 
directory on the current production servers so that it will be there for 
use on the DR server?

Any advice/answers are welcome. I know this setup is far from optimal, but 
it's what we have to work with.

Thanks for your time,
  -paul

- -- 
Paul D. Engle                | Rice University
Sr. Systems Administrator    | Information Technology - MS119
(713) 348-4702               | P.O. Box 1892
pengle at rice.edu              | Houston, TX 77251-1892
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