How would I set up a VPS to be an incoming SMTP relay just in case my
home server goes down?
reddit / selfhosted

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cribbageSTARSHIP · 2023-12-10 00:25

Could someone suggest a program or tutorial on how to set up an smtp
relay? I want to set one up to catch all my incoming mail in case I
have to shut my server down.

Thanks.

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equipmentmobbingthro · 2023-12-10 01:06

You can have a second MX record with a lower priority so that if the
highest priority cant be reached mail gets delivered to the next one
instead.
It shouldn't be necessary to do that though because SMTP servers will
usually retry delivering email for up to 48 hours in case the
recipient server is unavailable. So if your server isn't offline for
long periods you don't need to worry at all.

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cribbageSTARSHIP · 2023-12-10 02:43

Thank you! That's awesome news

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8484215 · 2023-12-10 11:29

I have my VPS as the only MX. Then use fdm (fetch and deliver mail) to
pull the mail down from the VPS to home server.

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williehowe · 2023-12-10 12:22

You can also check out DNS exit. They have the backup MX service and
we use it a lot.

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ElevenNotes · 2023-12-10 18:13

Perks of email.

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cribbageSTARSHIP · 2023-12-11 02:04

What are you running on the VPS?

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8484215 · 2023-12-11 03:19

It's just a cPanel instance, so it gives domain keys, etc,
automatically, plus runs SMTP receive and send. It buffers all
incoming email until the home server pulls it down (fdm) and all
clients use the VPS directly to send to avoid dynamic IP spam list
crap.