Zimbra Forums

Hi,
As of now our ZCS is running on a single server which getting sudden load spikes during peak hours. We are in process of build a robust setup with Zimba multi server where 2 servers will be configured with Multi Master LDAP along with proxy MTA. The mailbox server will be on another host. In our existing setup only one NATted public IP serves all requests. Does my new architecture require two public IP's one for MTA and one for mailbox host? or the current configured NAT IP is sufficient? Please suggest and guide me.

Hi Rama,

If you have multi server you can access each server by difference IPs or use the same (one) IP for all servers/services. For example, you can use 1 static IP for MTA and another one for mailbox server or you can use only one static IP and do port NATs for those servers. The important thing is you must have the right DNS configuration when you use NAT network (called split DNS).

as I understand, you are having 2 servers: MTA/Proxy/LDAP server and Mailbox Server. 2 servers are located behind your firewall/router and you use NAT to allow user from internet can access servers. You can use 2 different static/routable IP addresses and from Internet DNS you will have something like this:
prodmta.domain.colo A your_first_static_IP
prodmb.domain.colo A your_second_static_IP
domain.colo MX prodmta.
domain.colo TXT "spf=1 mx ~all"

your_first_static_IP PTR prodmta.domain.colo

and you do NAT from your_first_static_IP to your MTA server's LAN IP1, from your_second_static_IP to your Mailbox server's LAN IP2.
Of course, you need to setup a internal DNS system according to split DNS wiki like:
prodmta.domain.colo A LAN_IP1
prodmb.domain.colo A LAN_IP2
domain.colo MX prodmta.

All this configuration is flexible and depend on your network. You can have only one static IP, or use only one FQDN or use different FQDN for different service/servers, etc,... The final result you need are right MX record, A record, SPF record and PTR record.

Regards,

Hi,
Thank you very much. Now users are able to access their mailboxes via our MTA hostname, prodmta.domain.colo. I just confused with the parameter "Web mail MTA Hostnames", which set localhost on port 25. What the hostname should it be prodmb.domain.colo(Mailbox hostname) or prodmta.domain.colo(MTA hostname).

You can use prodmb.domain.colo for user's convenient.
Are you using multi server or single server? Because when you install mailbox server, it will ask you to input MTA server info (FQDN).
Regards,

Rama wrote:Hi,
Thank you very much. Now users are able to access their mailboxes via our MTA hostname, prodmta.domain.colo. I just confused with the parameter "Web mail MTA Hostnames", which set localhost on port 25. What the hostname should it be prodmb.domain.colo(Mailbox hostname) or prodmta.domain.colo(MTA hostname).

The Web Mail MTA Hostname parameter for a mailbox server lists the MTA servers that will be used by that mailbox server for sending out emails users create with the Zimbra web interface.

In a single-server installation, it's always set to "localhost" because the single server has both the MTA and mailbox roles.

In a smaller multi-server environment, where the MTA server is a separate server from the mailbox server(s), you need to set this explicitly to the fqdn of the MTA server, so prodmta.domain.colo.

In a larger multi-server environment with multiple MTA servers, it's not uncommon to use one or two MTA servers just for inbound email (the MX servers), and multiple MTA servers for sending email outbound. So this is where you'd list the outbound MTA servers.

Probably more than you wanted to know!

Hope that helps,
Mark