ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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Looking at a solution to transfer someone's email over to Google Apps or another mail server but there can be no downtime of the e-mail when making the transfer.
I've not worried too much about a little downtime when transferring my own domain names, but this is for someone else who's expressly requested this. If I were to add both the MX records for the new email provider and keep the existing ones to the DNS file of their domain name, would the e-mail end up on both servers or will something else happen?
When I've done a straight swap in the past (i.e. replace the existing MX records with G Apps ones) it's worked instantaneously, I just don't want to cock this one up!
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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What's the TTL on the record?
If it's 60 seconds you would get away with just changing it. If it's longer probably not.
Add on the new one and set the cost to lower than the old one. You might still have to move some incoming emails across manually but the client should never know.
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VrsTurbo
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Registered: 8th Jun 10
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iirc cant you do it so 1 MX record has a higher value so it trys that first then goes onto the next etc
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Whittie
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Registered: 11th Aug 06
Location: North Wales Drives: BMW, Corsa & Fiat
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It doesn't work, i've looked into it in the past and didn't come up with a solution.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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If you add both sets of MX records then it'll go one of two ways - If priorities are same between MX records then it will in effect do a basic load balance and you'll end up with mail on either/or mail servers, otherwise the sending mail server will ascend the MX records based on priorities and go through them until it successfully deliveries the mail.
The best bet is to do this late one evening/night and just replace the current records with the new ones. At least then it gives a fair few hours for the records to change.
Plus 99.9% of mail servers will re-queue the mail until it successfully delivers it to your mail server(s), so you should be ok.
Also, great site for checking domain DNS - http://www.intodns.com
[Edited on 11-07-2012 by Dom]
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Hadn't thought about that until I read Dom's there but that would work if he goes to sleep.
If you can stop the old server accepting emails, when you change the MX record, it'll either go to the new server or it'll try the old server and when it can't deliver it will queue.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by John
If you can stop the old server accepting emails, when you change the MX record, it'll either go to the new server or it'll try the old server and when it can't deliver it will queue.
Probably the best solution if you have sole access to the 'old' mail server.
Tbf, just go with the late night approach and worse case senders will get bounce backs but it's unlikely if the sending mail servers are set up correct (ie: re-queue mail).
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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I doubt I'll have much access to the e-mail server on this one as it'll probably be my favourite kind of e-mail - "And your £3.99 a month web hosting comes with 10 FREE mailboxes OMFG11!!!"
Think I'll do it at 2am after I've been out or something  A few bounce backs wont matter as the sender will at least get acknowledgment that their message has failed and they can do something about it.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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If it's that sort of email you might not get bounce backs, if you can't stop the server from receiving they'll continue to get delivered until the MX change propagates.
Late at night and just forward some over manually if need be is best solution I think.
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Get Google Apps up and running using their temp addresses, swap the MX over late late late one night then in the morning all should be good to go. Last time I did one of these I did the above, customer didn't notice a thing, just stopped on outlook on the old POP account and started receiving on the new Apps IMAP account (I'd set both up). He was happy.
[Edited on 11-07-2012 by pow]
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