Split storage & solr

Sami Ketola
Thu, 30 Jan 2020 08:02:48 -0000

> On 29 Jan 2020, at 23.37, Daniel Miller <dmiller at amfes.com> wrote:
>
> Is it possible to setup the following:
>
> 1. Primary mailserver with SMTP solutions and Dovecot.
> 2. Primary server will store recent mails.
> 3. Secondary server for archival storage and Solr.
>
> So I'm not looking for a distributed cluster - simply a splitting of
designated functions. Clients would only be connecting to the primary server. I
know Dovecot supports an alternate storage location - that's what made me
think this was possible. What I'm more uncertain of is Solr.
>
> My (probably flawed) thinking is to take advantage of a low-cost
high-availability cloud server to provide primary email services. Dovecot,
Postfix, and even ASSP don't have significant memory or processor
requirements by themselves - especially for my smaller user base.  However -
storage in the cloud can be at a premium. Therefore I'm thinking of
continuing to self-host the archives.  And my own server has the raw power &
memory to handle Solr easily.  What's triggering this is our ISP's
quality has been deteriorating - and the alternates don't appear much
better.
>
> Initial visualization would have a VPN/SSH connection between the servers,
and NFS mounting my storage to the cloud server for archives. If our connection
drops - in theory "current" mail handling is unaffected.
>
> My concerns/questions:
> 1. If Dovecot is unable to reach the remote Solr - upon re-connection will
Solr be told about the new messages to index? Or do I need to setup a periodic
re-scan?
> 2. Is there a "better" method of accessing the archive storage
area than NFS? Either a different network file system or is there a way to do it
with Dovecot directly?
> 3. What am I not taking into consideration in this setup that you think
will be a problem?

Just have two separate installations and send a copy of all emails to the
archive server at MTA level. Then at primary server setup autoexpunge to keep
copy only of the most recent mails.
Then you can connect your archive to the primary server with imapc connector if
needed.

Sami


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