Setting up second email

Aloha. I have been having trouble setting up a test email server in DNS. We are using Groupwise 6.5 and our current domain is hpsi.net. I have another email server running Groupwise 6.0 that I want to set up as test.hpsi.net. We have a window 2000 server doing internal DNS and a Caldera Openlinux 3.1 server doing external DNS. In the master zone, I tried to setup the test.hpsi.net zone similar to how our current email server is setup but to no avail. Do I need to set it up as a slave. stub, or forward zone or can I just add the entries into the hpsi.net master zone? I can supply more information if anyone would be able to help me. I have found a lot of documentation on how to set up DNS for an email server but not too much for a subdomain like what I am trying to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

stick the new entry into the hpsi.net master zone file.

Currently you have the following records:

hpsi.net. MX 55 hpsi3.hpsi.net.

hpsi3.hpsi.net. A 66.192.213.69

The top one associates the email address *@hpsi.net with the server "hpsi3.hpsi.net". The second record states the IP address for that server. Add these records:

hpsi.net. MX 56 test.hpsi.net.

test.hpsi.net. A 12.23.34.45

The top record associates a second server for all email sent to *@hpsi.net. The number is larger than the number in the first record, so it is a secondary server. It will only be used if the top server is down. The second record specifies a (bogus in the example) IP address for that server.

If however you want to associate the test server with a test email domain you add the following:

test.hpsi.net. MX 56 test.hpsi.net.

test.hpsi.net. A 12.23.34.45

Now you're associating the server "test.hpsi.net" with email destined for *@test.hpsi.net. Once again, you need to give it an email address.

So does that answer your question?

As you suggested, I added the following lines to the config file:
test.hpsi.net. IN MX 60 test1.test.hpsi.net
test.hpsi.net. IN A 66.192.213.83
test1.test.hpsi.net IN A 66.192.213.83

Now when I use nslookup to ur DNS server, I get the following output:
> server 192.168.1.1
Default Server: [192.168.1.1]
Address: 192.168.1.1

> set q=any
> test.hpsi.net
Server: [192.168.1.1]
Address: 192.168.1.1

test.hpsi.net internet address = 66.192.213.83
test.hpsi.net MX preference = 60, mail exchanger = test1.test.hpsi.net
hpsi.net nameserver = ns1.hpsi.net
hpsi.net nameserver = bm03.hpsi.net
test1.test.hpsi.net internet address = 66.192.213.83
ns1.hpsi.net internet address = 66.192.213.77
bm03.hpsi.net internet address = 66.192.213.66
> hpsi.net
Server: [192.168.1.1]
Address: 192.168.1.1

hpsi.net nameserver = ns1.hpsi.net
hpsi.net
primary name server = ns1.hpsi.net
responsible mail addr = webmaster.hpsi.net
serial = 2003080817
refresh = 10800 (3 hours)
retry = 3600 (1 hour)
expire = 432000 (5 days)
default TTL = 38400 (10 hours 40 mins)
hpsi.net MX preference = 50, mail exchanger = hpsi3.hpsi.net
hpsi.net nameserver = bm03.hpsi.net
hpsi.net internet address = 66.192.213.69
hpsi.net nameserver = ns1.hpsi.net
hpsi.net nameserver = bm03.hpsi.net
ns1.hpsi.net internet address = 66.192.213.77
hpsi3.hpsi.net internet address = 66.192.213.69
bm03.hpsi.net internet address = 66.192.213.66

However, I am still unable to send email to the test.hpsi.net domain. Is there a problem with naming the second email server in the test.hpsi.net subdomain instead of the hpsi.net domain? Would I be better off making a new master zone on the DNS server? How long does it usually take for other DNS servers to update their records when I make an update on mine?

Once again I humbly thank you for any help that you can give me regarding this problem. I really appreciate it.

Well I can't guarantee nothing until you make both of your DNS servers agree on what's up with your zone. :-) Check this out:

Zone Transfer of 'bm03.hpsi.net' (66.192.213.66)

http://serialcoders.sytes.net/cgi-b...=AXFR&submit=DS

Zone Transfer of 'ns1.hpsi.net' (66.192.213.77)

http://serialcoders.sytes.net/cgi-b...=AXFR&submit=DS

Thanks for the helpful advice. I have modified the DNS records so that both servers are the same. Do I have to make another zone for test.hpsi.net? Or is it ok to have it mentioned in the lower priority mx record? Once again, I want to thank you for all of your help. You are the man! Mahalo.

Since one domain doesn't have both MX records it does not matter what you use as the preference/priority number. And no, do not create a new zone for the test server.

So is your test mail domain working now? It should be, my tests say that it is.

SilentRage,
Thanks for all of your help. I won't be going back in to the office until Monday, but I am pretty sure that it is working now. I can ping the subdomain now and emails that I send to the second email server are not getting bounced back. I will post on Monday to let you know. Mahalo.

Thank you very much. The subdomain email server is working perfectly now. I truly appreciate all of your help. I will be setting up a spamassassin server in a few days to test spam filtering on the subdomain and I may have a few questions for you at that time. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out though. Thanks again for all of your help.